I’d put my lunch money on Josh Ibbett winning this. Odds wouldn’t be very long, though.

* Keep highly-paid indoor job
* Work fewer hours when you have the option (I’m on 8 days a month)
* Build trails in your lunchbreak and at weekends to get your outdoor fix

“About 12% of global trade and roughly 30% of the world’s shipping container volume transit through the Suez Canal, making it one of the world’s most important waterways.

“A rough estimate shows the blockage is costing about $400M an hour, based on calculations from Lloyd’s List.”

And no worse feeling than flying off with 5 weeks away from home.

Very true. Heathrow Terminal 3 departures still gives me the willies to this day

We had onshore projects in Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan where our management didn’t care what rotation we did, so long as one of us was there. After working 28/28 for a while, 35/35 was deemed much better as you had so much time off you could feel lost in it. Also, you could accomplish huge amounts in the time on site.

There is no greater feeling than flying back home with five weeks off, a holiday with the kids planned and zero money or work worries.

Definitely do it.

My mum had one. Every bit as quick as my mk7 golf GTI but sounded way better. My kids were scared of the Sport button. Unfortunately, someone hit her head on on an A-road with a closing speed of 85mph. Her knee was shattered, four months in a wheelchair age 70 (not much fun) and now she is driving something much bigger and more defensive.

HANetf BTCetc Bitcoin Exchange Traded Crypto (BTCE) if you have a normal share / fund account and just want to gamble on price.

This strikes me as the safest way to go. You can buy this price tracker in your ISA, there’s almost no spread, no need for cold wallets or any of that jazz, and if you use a UK based broker like Trading 212 (no transaction or inactivity fees) then up to £85k is backed up by the FSCS.

Was using Revolut but they have a 4% spread plus have none of the other benefits listed above (ISA, FSCS).

If not sure what the price will do there’s no shame in a partial sell. I just sold 25% at US $17k.

Bitcoin still not really “useable”. Even the new PayPal wallets will charge a 2% fee for using it. So still not perfect by any means. Yet. But going the right way and cannot be printed unlike the rapidly-weakening GBP we all hold and never talk about.

@fatmountain Revolut are not backed by the FSCS so I would go steady on the total amount you hold with them. As a contractor I get paid in USD, so it makes sense for me to be paid into my Revolut USD account rather than paying huge fees to a traditional bank. This makes it far too easy for me to buy commodities and crypto with them as the cash is otherwise just sitting there getting almost no interest. This past month I more than doubled my money on some US solar stocks.

Commodities – so far so good. Can buy/sell at rates very close to the spot price which is pegged to GBP. Again I’d rather hold gold than cash at the current time as gold cannot be diluted through aggressive QE programmes as we are currently seeing both sides of the pond.

Crypto – Also works fine but there is something like a 4% spread which is horrible. I’ve looked into other providers (digital wallets, exchanges) but I’ve not found anything I’m 100% comfortable with, or if I’m honest, 100% understand. Even Paypal’s latest offering will carry a >2% fee when you spend crypto. I thought the whole point in crypto was decentralisation and no fees? There is still a long way to go.

The latest announcements from Square and PayPal have boosted Bitcoin. But it will get a far bigger boost once it is actually of practical use. I’m happy to hold a small amount with Revolut until that happens.

I use Revolut for buying commodities – ok so far but probably wouldn’t want to keep too much with them. There are gold funds that you can stick in your ISA – Bestinvest and I believe EQ Investors do a few. These would be a safer option but with higher fees, roughly 1.3% per annum from memory.

Gold appeals as it’s had a positive run for the past five years, a broadly good run since “Brown’s bottom” in 2001 and has recently passed its 2011 high. But most appealing for me is that it cannot be printed by any central bank. I’d rather hold gold (or even bitcoin) than £ or $ at the moment.

A friend of mine is aiming do do the full loop in under 24hrs, this month. SDW (East-West) this weekend as a tester. Has anyone tried the full loop in one hit and if so, how was it?

“It was taking me longer and longer to wash my face”

– Harry Hill

Every major town should have a pumptrack its not as if you need a lot of land for the usage it provides. They’re so accessible from kids, beginners to pros

Agreed. And every urban cyclepath should have a pump track section parallel to it. No cars, no obesity and plenty of fun. I’ll tell Greta and David

A bloke at my work is into all the >100 mile running ultras. Like me he has three young kids, at least one of them autistic.

IMO it’s his wife who is the real trooper. She’s looking after the very difficult kids at home while he indulges himself in yet another peaceful 10hr training run.

Nothing to do with the oil industry would be my advice!

This in spades!

I wasted 18 months training to become an ATCO with NATS, trying to get away from oil & gas. But I guess being a pilot you’d fare much better!

Three pages in and no one has mentioned coding / software development?

In real terms I am mostly closer to 60 hours and if international travel time was included way above that. It’s a never ending cycle of meeting performance goals driven by quarterly redundancy of “Low performers” who are then replaced by disposable new hires who either sink or swim.

Stevextc that has Slb written all over it

Cheers. In that context it makes more sense. Not had a ‘proper’ job in the UK before!

Appreciate all the advice.

Our contracts explicitly state no other jobs in oil and gas.

Strangely, there is nothing in the contract preventing me from having a second job so long as it is not with a direct competitor (which it isn’t). My concern is having the time to fit in the second job. Here’s the contradiction in the contract:

“Hours of Work: Your normal hours of work are 37.5 hours per week, Monday to Friday”. This is consistent with what they told me at interview.

and then a few pages on:

“..normally it is not intended that you will work on average in excess of 48 hours per week. However, should business needs require, you agree to work in excess of an average of 48 hours per week”

Bit of a difference between the normals, eh?

I’m just trying to get a feel for what they actually, typically work in order to figure out whether I can realistically fit in the second job. It’s also 100 miles from home so I’ll have to Air BnB it for a while

Bloody hell mate.  The final three paragraphs of that post.  What incredible strength that must’ve taken.

Shirley ATC is a bit like train driving in that it will become automated?

That was my concern also.  The official line at NATS is that full automation is 30-40 years away, given that it’s so hard to build flawless algorithms in 4D.  But there again they would say that to the trainees.

TBH if I could kill ten years there I’d be happy.

NATS are begging for people to become air traffic controllers, as are ATS who do Gatwick.  NATS pay £60k after validating (takes 2-3 years of training on shit money), rising to around £100k.

The maths-y folks on our course are finding it all very easy.  I’m 38, three kids, £350k mortgage.  I’d bet you’re well placed by comparison.

https://www.nats.aero/careers/trainee-air-traffic-controllers/

DrJ – You’re spot on.  In retrospect I was very greedy and it was a very irresponsible move what with a mortgage & young kids.  My folks also lost £250k on this very same share, which is yet another thing to consider if investing in a single asset, i.e. how exposed are your immediate family already?  I failed to take this into account at the time.

Neil – Sounds very wise.  Anything greater than that amount would go in a professionally-managed fund for me.  Let them have their 1-2%. Currently this is N/A but hopefully that will change over the next 5-10 years.

Trinity Exploration originally floated as Bayfield Energy in 2011 (there has been a complex takeover / merger / share consolidation since).

I went all in on Bayfield to the tune of absolutely everything I had (£90k, now worth less than £3k) because the previous management had just sold a meteorically successful company named Burren Energy, for whom I worked for several years.  Burren shares went up by a factor of ten over about six years.  It was a super, super investment and a very carefully & competently run company.  Absolutely everyone flew economy.  Burren produced oil for $2.84 a barrel and sold 25,000bbls of it per day at the spot price.  You do the maths, it was something else.

Similar was expected for Bayfield (later Trinity).  Chief Exec Finian O’Sullivan told the early friends and family investors that they could expect a tripling of their investment as the project matured.  Sadly, he’s since given up on the project and continues to act like nothing has happened.  He remains in the Sunday Times Rich List so I doubt he gives a shit.

Sadly, Bayfield/Trinity went to the dogs due to a number of reasons – underfunding of the drilling campaign, lack of experience offshore, falling oil prices, already-made-it management complacency, greed & infighting and probably some plain old bad luck.  I could greatly expand on this list but I’ll spare you the details.

After numerous management changes, Trinity may have finally found their way.  But I have lost faith in this style of investment having been thoroughly fleeced.  I still lose sleep over this one.  If you have an appetite for it then by all means have a punt if you have done your homework.  Highly volatile O&G stocks on AIM are about as unfashionable as it can get.  If you’re very brave then that might be the ultimate buying signal.

Good luck!

TRIN just needs to go up by a factor of 30 and I’ll be in profit!

Some decent price movement the past couple of weeks.  I’ve not followed their activity in ages but they must be doing something right, finally!  Fill yer boots.

I helped Clark & Kent (C&K Contractors) build the Portsmouth pump track last year.

They did the Olympic bmx track for 2012 so come with bags of credibility for the white haired folk who sit on councils making decisions.

They can help make the anti nimby, pro riding arguments as can their former clients

“Hmm .. I’d assumed this was going to be about the oil industry, and clicked in the hope of finding some good tips!”

Damn it – me too!

Join NATS as an air traffic controller.  The ‘infographic’ on their site shows people joining in their late fifties.  I start in May.

I also did the QECP event in Hants yesterday, but only the half (not the full marathon).  Got 12th place (1hr 45mins) which I did not expect!  217 finishers.

Some serious climbing on that course (600mtrs per 13-mile lap).  The thought of doing a 2nd lap for the marathon – I have no idea how anyone did that.  Fair play to you, BB.

Now foaming at the mouth for another event to enter to keep the motivation up!

I’m also 37 and changing jobs. Looking at a ten fold drop in wages. Can’t wait

Sound advice.  Cheers all.

Is anyone else in the south doing the QECP trail half marathon on Sunday 25th of March?  Be good to say hi at the start if so.

Also, how does anyone handle running with friends in races – what’s the etiquette on pace?  I have a 50 year old friend who will destroy the rest of us with 7min/miles despite the hills, hence it’s easy to tell him to run his own race solo from the start – we don’t want to hold him up.

But the younger & slower guys – how to handle that pre-race conversation?  My inclination would be to stick together for the first five miles and then split at that point if some are suffering.

Don’t want to offend anyone but don’t want to run a crap race either!

Cheers for the responses. Intrigued to know who the mystery STW air traffic controller is! I honestly thought there’d be half a dozen on here.

As the first year is a paltry £13k and as more and more people confirm that the training & exams are ‘harder than a masters’, it’s looking less and less feasible/affordable. Too much of a gamble quitting my other job and breaking ties.

Any further feedback welcomed though. Got about a week to decide

Fantastic thing you are doing for your mum! Very inspiring. Wish I’d done the same for my brother whilst he was around.

Friday night bump of shame

Cheers Curto80!

I should add that questions like this tend to go unanswered on the pprune forum (like STW but for all things flight related). Seems the conversation is stifled there. I find this place way better for straight answers.

Appreciate any info/contacts you can send on

A mate of mine is 50 and ran his first sub-20 min 5k two nights ago:

https://www.strava.com/activities/1339352035

He only started running last August!
But:
– Very fit cyclist
– Some downhill in this, probably 100mtrs total
– 6ft and a quite skinny 12st 4lbs or so

Doesn’t quite answer your question but I would have thought it was possible to replicate at a parkrun. No road crossings for a start!

Thanks both – call by anytime!

Many thanks to Shan Andy for the help since the above was posted, and for all the other suggestions to help save our trails & woodland in Winchester.

Petition is up and we are well on our way to 1,000 signatures in the first 24hrs.

If you get a minute, please read and sign!

http://chn.ge/2Cw91db

P.S. Sorry for the thread hijack. As you were!

The defence barrister is a close friend of my dad’s. If indeed he did misquote the Highway Code unchallenged then this should go to appeal, without question.

Having been on a jury earlier this year, I find it very strange that the judge didn’t demand a citation when the pivotal Highway Code / dark clothing point was mentioned. Let alone the prosecution not destroying that minutes later.

Joefm – Other than a FB page we have no online presence, currently. I may change that shortly as I think a credible-looking website will help our case, especially as we have more and more local Primary school aged children coming down to use it.

ShanAndy – Cheers, replied just now and look forward to meeting you on site.

Pook – Many thanks, I’ll go though the site tonight and see what I can learn from similar cases.

Sorry for the thread hijack but this site means a lot to us! It’s MTB friendly too in case anyone near Winchester enjoys riding jumps.

Am I right in thinking that you’re talking about the dirt jumps in the trees between the P&R and the roundabout?

That’s right.

What is the current status of the trails regarding permissions and management? That kind of thing is important.

It’s informal at best. Our aim for the past two decades has been to build lines & ride bikes, not form quangos or write up a Charter. But if we need to formalise ourselves for WCC’s sake, we can.

Have any alternative venues for the trails been suggested?

Not yet. We love the place, our history with it, the woodland, the unique topography, the chalk, the location.

Appreciate your help – it would be great to discuss further offline: rbosullivan [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk. We’re down there regularly, building.

My kids (3, 5, 7) ride there. I challenged the WCC members to name five free outdoor activities for Winchester kids to take part in. They couldn’t name three in the meeting, let alone five.

Doesn’t really make sense when their South P+R is never even half full…

Agreed, except for when travelers take it over as they did earlier this year[/url].

We continue to document with time-stamped photos how underused the South P&R is, even during the Christmas market. There’s also 8-10 acres of flat, highly compacted grassland just to the south of it. We’ve made this argument to WCC and they have promised to re-evaluate this site. Our feeling is that they are too embarrassed to do a U-turn having already spent money on surveyors.