Crazy Legs – if it takes you 3 hours to get from Kendal to Glentress then you drive like an old woman 😉 I used to do Stirling – Milnthorpe in less than that given a clear run, and 3 hours if it was snarled up!

I would say Cumbria, North Yorkshire, Peaks, Wales and… of course… pretty much any of Scotland. Not in that specific order – all depends what you want from your wider life really.

My advice – go and sit on a load in the dealership to see what fits you comfortably. Been trying to decide where to go next summer myself, the Speed Triple is utterly epic at thrashing around the Lakes, but bollocks all use for doing a grand tour of Europe, so it has to go 😉

At 6'2" and built like a tank I found the following deeply comfy:

BMW K1200S
Honda CB1300S
Kawasaki ZXR1200
Kawasaki ZZR 1400
Triumph Sprint
Triumph Tiger (just a bit less good than the Sprint, but that may be cos my leathers have tight legs and it's a long way up there!)

So that is probably my shortlist (along with the Ducati ST3/4 which I need to look at again).

Oh aye – and also really nice to sit on and ride… Triumph Bonnieville. If I could afford/justify 2 bikes I would have one of them in the garage too (a new one that is)!

Didn't you know… by putting a big exhaust on their car, lowering the suspension and putting on a bodykit they are, infact, improving on the design characteristics that those folk with degrees spent ages trying to get right and turn their cars into superb handling 400bhp (out of the stock 1.2) sports cars.

Do you know nothing? I suggest you read Max Power to understand them better… then you too will want to do the same.

Or not 😉

Pisses me right off too, usually cos they drive like nobs and think their 1.2 Fiesta is faster than anything else on the road… and hence try to race anything they come across. Including my Speed Triple.

I go more for Ardbeg than Lagavulin myself. I like em all though 😉

It depends on your definition of pirates… I believe that only proper old school pirates complete with eye patches, cutlass' and parrots are significant in climate change discussions.

Pendryn is beyond grim!

A good fallback if you aren't sure exactly what type of whisky he likes is Highland Park. It's excellent in it's own right, but it doesn't lean too heavily in any direction – for that kind of money you are looking at either a 12 y.o or a 15 y.o. The 12 is good, the 15 I have never tried (the 18 is exceptional, so I would guess the 15 would be somewhere between the two… which would make it rather special)

However, if you know he likes big whisky then just get anything from Islay 😉

Dinosaurs in Antarctica…. See… continents shuffle about the globe quite happily, and during the Jurassic there was this thing called Gondwanaland which was a supercontinent.

During this time the northern most part of Antarctica was level with what is now South Australia, which is a pretty toasty part of the world all things considered.

Can't be arsed with the rest of stuff where people are regurgitating the same old bollocks that has been debunked many times over, but folk keep digging up the same flawed research from years back again and again. Yes, climate change is a bit of a blow to our lifestyles, but get over it – it isn't a conspiracy and it does need to be addressed.

Off to walk the dog – he needs a piss 😉

Been hibernating in Cumbria for the last few days, for obvious reasons.

May get out during the week though, depending when the call outs start to build up as the flood waters go down. Thinking I may head out somewhere tomorrow, maybe just (very) local though (so cheeky trails then!)

Been out to inspect one of our pumping stations today – it's fecked. My father is out at a couple down in Lancashire too, and we have had a call from up near Cockermouth to go and inspect a system up there too.

Given that it is still the weekend, tomorrow I think it is going to go mental. We have been quietish, but with enough work coming in, through the recession – I suspect that we are going to be run off our feet over the next few months though. Going to have to replace many, many control panels, power supplies and possibly damaged pumps/treatment plants…. We have a fair amount of plant installed in the worst hit areas, plus the rest of the county has been hit hard and will have a lot of repairs required.

It's going to be the same for other companies in the area – there is going to be so much needing done and only so many people to do the work… it's going to take months/years to put everything back in order again I suspect. What worries me is the impact this is going to have on the wider economy of Cumbria – there is just so much damage!

Currently:

But autumn is coming to an end so it will probably change soon

Was something else that game!

I shall be on the phone to Adelaide tomorrow… just to commisserate like 😉

42%… when do I leave.

And can I chose where they send me????

The Police were saying not to use any bridges today either… which is a bit of a bind. I think that means I can go to Barrow, but that's about it!

So… another day at home then! Will go and check out Spark Bridge later on, see if the water has gone down and if their pumping station still works….

Hillary Ben is on his way – we are all saved!!!!

Not really – it's going to be a bloody difficult time of year for me 🙁

Last year we were going through the hardest bit of life possible at the time, the anniversary is only a couple of days before Christmas so I am guessing it won't be full of light and joy.

Gwaelod – you aint got topography down there – everything off the lumpy bits falls into the valley in these parts 😉

I was paddeling in the floods earlier on, full aware of the sewage issue since I was trying to turn off the power to a sewage pumping station!

No idea what tomorrow is going to bring, not caught the news/weather tonight. I am guessing probably more water falling down as yet though!

He he – Ambleside was cut off from the outside world a while back, with more rain tonight it is going to depend on how quick it all drains away I think….

Didn't take my camera this afternoon… depending what it's like tomorrow, and if I can manage to not go out for work, then I may take the camera for a wee adventure 😉

Should have my garage in a few weeks – can't wait!

Only a single, though reasonably long, and with a hard standing infront to keep the car on! No eleccy though I am thinking of fitting some solar panels, and a 12v battery system to provide light and perhaps a single socket (can be done for a reasonableish price). I will probably also stick a solar powered Oxford Optimate in to keep the motorbike topped up.

Think it is going to be more of a home for the motorised bike(s) rather than mountain bikes – but getting the Triumph out of my outhouse means that can become a permanent cycle home (which has power and solid stone walls).

Juan… that's a lie! I know this as I am not sure I have ever seen this thing you call dry… other than inside. Sometimes.

It aint too bad in Ulverston – well, not up here on the hillside anyway! However – just been to a callout and it was absolutely shocking! I only went out yesterday for 1 call out around Skelwith and today the same, but Spark Bridge.

Don't see tomorrow being productive either! Only managed 1 full days work this week!!!

The only thing that puts me off is stupid shock placement – anything between the wheel and seat tube is right out! I can't see why manufacturers place the shock right in the firing line of all the muck off the back wheel, it put me right off the Cube Fritz that I would probably have bought otherwise.

Yeah – it's not to bad around here Haddock… but you got to watch them Monks, dodgy bunch they are 😉

(I shouldn't say that given that I do some work for em!)

Think I will probably just go with the garage defender option for the time being, and add ground anchors later if I get jittery!

Nope – its in a row of garages with no access other than the front door, so I only need to secure the up and over door.

There is also a large perspex window above that may need some metal meshing/bars behind it to prevent unwanted entry….

Decent drills I have 😉

I was thinking a couple of dead bolts up top too, like these:

http://www.pjbsecurity.co.uk/garage-locking-bolts

For when I am away with the car.

Problem is the garage has been let out for years, so I have no idea who may have keys for the lock that is on it!

Just in the process of buying a lock up to keep stuff in (tools and my motorbike, the mountain bikes can stay in the shed). I was worrying a bit about security – I can see the roof of the lockup from my house (just). The area is pretty good… but with a few grands worth of bike in there…

I was thinking one of these:

http://www.pjbsecurity.co.uk/garage-defender

For when the car is out (usually that will be parked right up against the door, and being a 4×4 it will block it pretty effectively)

Then throw in a few ground anchors and chains… and probably a tatty old bike cover too.

Is there anything else I should consider?

But if you live on a trailer park… you don't have to pay CT (I heard this somewhere, and I don't think it was from one of the Gypsies I do a few jobs for either…)

If you have the right attachments it can be done – I used to use a highish end Epson flatbed for film scanning… it was pretty "average" results though (if I am kind!)

I am doing my best to use as little gas as possible to be honest. We have gas central heating and water (mains) which goes on for an hour first thing in the morning and another hour late afternoon. Turned to wood for my main heating (wood burning stove in the dining room and one in the living room).

If you get somewhere with an oil/LPG system and you have space then it is reasonably straight forward to convert to a wood pellet based system which is both cheaper to run than oil, and close to carbon neutral (assuming that there is a local producer and distributor of wood pellets that is!). You can then be smug when the gas gets switched off and you are still warm 😉 I am also a big fan of Esse Ironheart stoves – basically a wood burner with over and hot plates. Ace things… just wondering how much it will cost to get my dining room fireplace opened up a touch more and fit one in there. Apparently it used to have a solid fuel range cooker installed so it should be doable!

I was very tempted to get a panoramic medium/large format camera. Just chatting to a guy the other day though and he was telling me that it costs him £4 for the film, £4 to process…. and then £10 for scanning each frame. Since I like to store everything digitally (as well as hard copy/positive) that would be a very, very expensive thing to get into.

So I am sticking to digital, and waiting until I can afford a medium format digital solution. One day.

Maybe.

Even very expensive filters degrade image quality, and cleaning lenses isn't really an issue 😉 There are places that I would probably consider popping a filter on for protection, but that would be an exception rather than a rule.

Oh aye – and cheers Graham – I feel all appreciated now 😉

Yeah – I add it quite often too, but would rather do so in a controlled way when I want it 😉 I quite often use it to focus the eye into the frame… depends what I am doing though!

Clarity and saturation are dead easy to meddle with in PP though, which is why I wouldn't use a filter to do it. I know what you are getting at, but I feel that throwing a CP at it is the wrong (and if you want a decent one, a very expensive) way of going about it.

At 10mm on crop (so about 16/17mm full frame – which is what I am on) you also have the issue of vignetting if you use a fat filter, so you really need to go for a slimline version, or one of the square filter set ups (Lee/Cokin Z or X etc)… my Cokin Z Pro CP was around £200 I think…. You can buy Photoshop Lightroom for less which will do much more good (unless you are trying to cut down reflective surfaces which is something that can ONLY be done by a polerising filter at the time of shooting).

Didn't know that – and I don't wind up high enough to bother with one very often anyway 😉

None of those examples needed a poleriser mind 😉 In my camera bag there are the following:

Set of ND Grads (1,2,3 stop) – all soft edged as I tend not to be shooting stuff with flat horizons 😉 These get the most use of anything

3 stop ND – just to slow down exposures a bit when I need to.

Circular Polariser – used ONLY to cut down reflections. The saturation boosting ability used to be handy when shooting on film, but on digital – no need.

You need to remember that anything you stick infront of your lens is compromising the quality of the recorded image, and that goes for even the best quality filters you can get. Don't leave stuff permanently on the front of your camera for that reason, just use them when you need them. If I were shooting high altitude I may consider a UV filter to get a bit more clarity too, and cut back on post process time

Tell me about it – I am an archaeologist!

Well, was – I was lucky to come out of uni in the late 90's when the economy was booming so fell into IT. Had a career in that for a few years, did a masters in my spare time in IT… realised I was wasting my life so left to become an engineer (and did another MSc in Environmental stuff which is loosely what I work in).

Photography is a tricky one though – there isn't much work in it (I do it part time too, it's a bastard! In the last couple of years I have made a few decent sales, but alas the companies that put the big orders in then went bust before paying!). Some of the soul destroying shopping centre portrait bods may take folk on, especially on the run up to Christmas, but that isn't really much better than stacking shelves IMO (formulaic pose against white backdrop… slightly high key – all look the same).

The Police route is a good option – I know a couple of very, very good photographers who wound up working in photography with them.

Beyond that – no idea. But definitely spread your search further. If I was a graduate again and had no ties I would probably be looking abroad. Something I always wanted to do, but life kind of got in the way before I had the chance.

Good luck!

Got a Jura – it's ace.

He lived down Brighton way for a bit – my eldest brother bought a house there when they were cheap… bastard! Made a mint when he sold it, though that has now all been spent on studying in LA.

My mates in Leeds suggest there too, though since he is tetotal he may want to come out with us on the lash and remind us how annoying we were when sobriety returns. This is not good 😉

The big bike show is at the NEC the end of this month – if you can hang on until then and get there you will pick up a load of gear for not much cash!

I use Shoei and Shark for what it's worth, as both fit me very, very well. But as everyone said above… it's all about what fits you 😉

Why the hell do we get 3 of the things in Cumbria though… I mean – there are few people who live here to be using that much power.

And none in London.

They should build power stations where the folk that leave office lights on all the time live and work, that would be a much better solution, and I bet the obsession with nuclear power would be quelled pretty swiftly too.