People generally massively underestimate the cost of keeping a dental practice open, staffed and legal / safe for patients.

The dearth of NHS practice is more to do with the level of NHS funding and the near impossibility of running a safe high quality practice that is also a viable solvent business using just the NHS dental contract as a primary business income.

FWIW, the evidence tends to suggest that the average person does a better job with an oral b style electric brush than a manual brush but that if you are “skilled” with a manual brush you can clean as well. The clinical research evidence also tends to suggest that the sonic brushes are not as effective as the rotary oscillating style.

oral b’s basic concept is the thing that is “clinically proven” to be better. They have then added lots of bells and whistles to sell more brushes so the more expensive models aren’t really any “better”

To @ali69er s point above. The stuff you are brushing off has the consistency of warm cream cheese so really doesn’t need much effort to remove ( think about how little force you are using spreading Philadelphia cheese on a bagel fresh out of the toaster!). Toothpaste is mildly abrasive ( whitening toothpastes more so) so scrubbing madly like you often see on tv will (over years) literally rub your gums and eventually tooth away.

your toothbrush ( electric / sonic or not) does no clean between the teeth. That’s why you need to use floss or interdental brushes. A waterpik is ok at this but it’s like cleaning your muddy bike with a hose. To get it really clean you need to get the sponge / brush out and wipe the worst of the mud off too.

As @cougar says

the basic small round oscillating oral b head is the thing that is clinically proven to be better ( in the average persons hands ) than a manual toothbrush. All the expensive models have is extra bells and whistles that make little difference.

Waterpiks are ok. They do clean in between the teeth but not as well as flossing or interdental brushes.

https://www.vaguemag.com/jason-adams-50-years-to-life/

A bit ( lot!) of middle aged inspiration

Tahoe will still be in ski season at Easter. It’s stunning though and the skiing is amazing but passes are really expensive these days.

my mate had an awesome day of mtb outside Santa Cruz which is only 90 mins south of SF. He rented an ibis and joined a shop ride I think. Santa Cruz is a cool beach town with an old wooden rollercoaster.

In San Francisco there’s a cool diner at the ocean end of Geary ( I think) above the ruined pump house. Fisherman’s wharf is a tacky tourist zoo imo. Santa Barbara area is lovely too. Monterey aquarium is pretty cool and there’s an area called “elkhorn ” slough ( I think) just north of it that is a rivermouth you can rent kayaks and cruise around seeing sea otters / seals etc. Pretty cool

Big Sur is stunning too & PCH 1 across bixby bridge is a classic thing to do.

From my armchair, i can see a strategy of attacking / invading across the border, causing massive local disruption then retreating before the might of the russian army is brought to bear, only to repeat the process in a different russian bordering region a few weeks later.

Would be a great way to “involve” lots of russians in the fact that a war is going on and continue to pose awkward questions to putin?

She wasn’t deliberately misleading anyone.  It was a cock up.  Cock ups happen.

Workplaces should always have systems in place to prevent easily forseeable cock ups from happening.  And this is 100% an easily foreseeable cock up with an even more easily implementable system to prevent it.

True but as a medical professional it is her responsibility (& probably a condition of her employment) to remain registered. There’s a personal responsibility that applies in medicine that is different from the usual situation that exists in other sectors.

What can you expect in a country run by plutocrats?

You cant blame them for wanting to Minnie-mise the damage…………

ill get my coat!

@nickc that’s what I thought! It’s bonkers!

anyway interesting addition to the discussion, Ellie Aldridge the kite foil gold medalist actually had to gain around 10kg to be competitive and is quoted as saying she was looking forward to not eating as much after the games!

Talking steeplechase, this is my mates brother.

He was so gutted…..

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/articles/crgmj2lylv1o

worth noting he’s achieved all this without being a full time athlete and works a “normal” job too!

@finbar discovery plus is free with a lot of sky packages so check that, i didn’t realise i could get it free until recently.

Mens round 3 of surfing is really worth watching on replay if you can find it. Proper scary Teahupoo. The first two days and the rest of the forecast were/ are going to be more benign.

Word on the ground is that womens round 3 is on today, probably 6pm ish uk time.

I havent found it on the bbc at all and seems hard to find any highlights on youtube that aren’t country restricted. That said, apparently CBC in canada are streaming it free if you can use a vpn.

Ok I’ll play…….

Hard to believe this song 30 years old. Near story about the effects on the actual recording – two tapes playing the same solo, one randomly slowed by hand to give the flanged effect. No idea how you get closer with a pedal!

https://youtube.com/shorts/1UkQVT3xyt8?si=5JEQ0nrbkf_192Ft

@politecameraaction possibly. It’s probably not quite as simple as it appears.

I suspect that the NHS gets a lot of that stuff for less now via the current arrangements than it would cost to provide it all from scratch / buy it back.

I don’t know enough about the detail of gp arrangements to comment properly, I’m sure others can.

edit: a quick google reveals…..

GPCE chair Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer  pointed out that since 2019, CPI inflation increased by 21.2%, while core contract investment only increased by 12.5%.

( core contract is not just GP pay but what the business is paid to provide it’s GP service)

also see….

https://www.pricebailey.co.uk/blog/national-minimum-wage-increase-doctors/

Talking to the several GPS I know, it’s a shortage of GP’ numbers generally and in addition, trying to get the ones that do exist to move to rural unfashionable areas that’s the biggest issue. The NHS owning the practices rather than the Dr’s isn’t necessarily going to sort that.

Worth pointing out that not owning the practices has saved the NHS a lot of money in property, equipment etc overhead and that’s part of the reason the system has not been changed. Doctors themselves are only part of the cost in operating a General Practice.

GP’s will also tell you that they are constantly expected to move their practicing closer to the way the Hospital system works and that “those in charge” are mainly hospital doctors driving this. The GP’s I know feel this is not an approach that works because primary care in the community via GP is very different to providing secondary care in a hospital system.

This isn’t in my direct experience but I have been told various versions by several different people who are part of General Practice.

Daughter and friend just got back from the last Edinburgh show. To say they had the best weekend is an understatement. They flew up from Bristol and loved the whole experience. The whole city was filled with swiftie stuff and sounds pretty cool to be honest.

their tickets were £110 each ( admittedly up in the gods!)

interesting note, they met some girls from Toronto who had flown to Scotland, had 4 days of holiday and the gig and spent the same money as it would have cost them to go to the Toronto date!

@politecameraaction except dentists aren’t employed by the nhs and the nhs doesn’t currently pay their businesses enough to remain viable without being subsidised by private income….

hate to say it but no one is fixing nhs dentistry anymore, that ship sailed somewhere in the last 14 years

Whether there is a monopoly or not, people generally massively underestimate / don’t understand the level of costs associated with running something properly medical. They often compare costs to using other services which have a much lower costs.

The built in overhead is massive in comparison to running a shop / plumbers / even an opticians I’d suggest. The overhead costs involved in running a vets room for 10 minutes of patient time when you factor in staying the right side of regulation / indemnity / cross-infection / contaminated waste disposal etc and the staff costs involved in this on top of the actual face to face time are almost certainly much higher than you realise.

@chipps the spark go is great for practice as outlined above. Only note of caution is that the speaker is pretty small and the quality of the sound you get out loud is “ok” but not like playing through a decent proper amp. I suspect that’s  down to speaker size and anything similarly portable is going to suffer that way too. Through headphones it sounds great!

ah didn’t know that was a thing but think i might be able to get that too! Thanks

so was there a free way to watch this?

I’ve got eurosport through sky but the tv channels haven’t shown any of the fort bill stuff, just the giro all weekend.

I don’t think my tv subs let me use the eurosport app either.

SUCCESS!

So as suggested above, the locking cap is supposed to prevent access to the hex bolt in the picture and there by prevent you from undoing the clamps……

Except clearly the caps are miles away from the hex bolt and you can reach the hex bolt with a basic allen key to undo the clamp, which i’ve just managed to do – fiddly but do able and no damage to the bars.

You would need a ridiculously long allen key access from the end that the cap covers in this case but i suspect is fortunate that the bars the clamps attach to are quite inset on the canopy compared to the full width of the roof.

Cheers for your help everyone!

Edit…. I can see this Allen bolt head underneath  does the lock cover just (fail to) prevent access to this bolt to undo the clamp?

There doesn’t seem to be anything else in that slot between the plastic cover and the bolt!

Thanks all

The plastic end wobbles around if you grab it so i’m assuming its just a locked cover over what ever actually tightens the bar on so pulling or hacking the cover off might be a go. Wouldn’t surprise me if the mechanisms are rusted anyway –  the little slot covers seem a bit seized on three of the locks.

Yeah there’s no key number on the locks sadly and I can’t see what brand they are either.

guessing the hammer technique involves bashing the screwdriver far enough in and turning?

Yep, one piece suits for surfing for sure, too much cold water flushing otherwise.

honestly as mentioned fit is everything and it varies between manufacturers

either go and look at one of the brands websites that have a comprehensive measuring web thingy (surface do this I think for example) to give you the size and buy from them

or just wait until you are in Vancouver island and try some suits on. Given the surf scene there I’m sure there will be a few shops!

Ps.

pics here……

Bars

Also there is n argument that as visiting the actual mountains become more and more exclusive / expensive, the viability of indoor slopes increases as an affordable way to go sliding on snow for uk residents who love it instead of just giving up on being able to do it.

The wave in Bristol is now apparently totally ( or close to) running off energy it generates from its own solar array

. At least that’s hat what they say. Hard to say what the impact is compared to driving to North Devon to surf…..

the north wales wave pool ( surf snowdonia ) used a different (earlier ) technology that is evidently less reliable but also offers a vastly reduced no of users per hour of function. That’s part of the reason it’s not still going.

there are already commercially viable pools like the Bristol wave in Switzerland, S. Korea and Australia and more on the way ( north of brum for example ) so that’s a model that seems to work.

worth also pointing out that the snowdomes in Tamworth, Milton Keynes, Manchester and Castleford have all survived for a long time now. It must be approaching 30 years for Tamworth.

None of those are anywhere near as accessible for the south west as Merthyr would be

@speeder sure I will have seen you. Always enjoy a bit of Lib spotting. I’ve had quite a few over the years and currently got a Jamie short wide that is super fun in pow. Rode that on Thursday…

Had fun turns on first lift at lanches Weds and Thurs then headed over to the stuff off the Tichot and Grattau (?)

My wife had a similar moment on Sunday and didn’t ski much of the week. She’s definitely a sunny blue piste cruiser!

@speeder

was almost certainly me waiting for my girls to get out of bed / find a toilet! suspect we will be there again similar time next year so maybe fun to hook up for a few runs!

was a weird week weather wise for sure & not really the sunny piste cruising week i had in mind – my wife didnt ski much. Between the total whiteout, the slush down low and the wind blowing the snow off to reveal the boilerplate ice underneath there were certainly some challenging conditions!

Daughter enjoyed it though – she had an advanced lesson on skis with BASS ( highly reccomend) and really got her carving dialled. She managed to link turns down the Bollin blue on a snowboard too so was super happy.

The sunny day ( monday) was nice over on the Val side & i had some lovely deep pow turns off the lanche chair on piste first few lifts on two of the mornings, first time ive properly white roomed myself on a powder turn, definately some “which way is down?” moments when the cloud moved in too though!

we drove as usual but left tignes friday night instead of sat am – made a huge difference to drive time and traffic starting in chambery on saturday.

How was our week?

Perfect!! Yeah they are supposed to be very good!

I used to have one of the AC tone ones which was great but ultimately i bought a real vox valve amp so sold it on!

I think there’s some truth in that. Unfortunately for those of us who love sliding on snow but have never had the opportunity to live in the mountains ( or any closer to them than a flight ) the choice is either give up or keep finding a way to afford it

Ps. £26 on eBay right now, does a very decent impression of vox ac30 top boost if that’s your guitarists sound?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404873589627?itmmeta=01HTD0EYF52BN5E7WBYSTRP3PN&hash=item5e4458b37b:g:1ssAAOSwJIhl-zuh&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA4G1z8f2MNFxVEoQjKJFNYYHes01R86B7uVkwNPLGkd4ktL3yMlUs4AKJIjm%2Fclan3pepuvDqVZyyB3vGOPzt%2Fj4Nbka1TfBptimsROb0deealEYfRftAqwh5T%2BJ23852uqtwrQpSGgTUJsKXUM6PL%2F2p7S–p%2FUpK2YbBhzz6zkrXoaH2FZ7XuP7bNRv%2FVX706bZ%2BtwwwSIUmeocIy8OL7SRLUvsdSS76kGh5g50MwitBx7%2F7DVogZwfA70CwKICukK%2BQks6Mj8Oj0GM2G0ohttIGXPR1%2B9x0Busv1B%2BYtXm%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR9jnu6DTYw

@scapegoat there will be lots of things that will do it but the joyo amp sim pedals sound good and can be picked up on eBay for £40 or so

https://www.joyoaudio.co.uk/amplifier-simulation/

Run as last pedal on a board and plug straight into your mixer. I’m assuming your mixer has a built in power amp or sends to a separate power amp that feeds the speakers and amplifies everything you send to the mixer ( your bass, vocals etc)  You won’t need a separate power amp for the guitar

@igm I’ve been to Tignes VC quite a few times and always had a great time ( although last weeks zero visibility 5/6 days tested my wife’s patience a bit, it’s the only “bad” week we’ve had out of quite a few years)

message me if you have questions.

Slushy euro carving fun today…..

really windy though high up and lots of lifestyle shut!

@igm worth also remembering that many North American resorts don’t have much accommodation at the lifts and you often stay in the closest local town and drive up each day.

In My dated  experience this was generally no problem but I am hearing reports of big queues for lifts and parking at some of the bigger resorts so worth lots of research!

Choose a resort and buy early bird season passes in the summer. Way cheaper than buying once you are there.

Also weather has been crap for beginners this week. Generally later season is sunnier and more pleasant than you have experienced!

Reckon you have been a bit unlucky. As mentioned above, instructors can be a bit hit or miss. We’ve generally had much better luck with small independent instructor companies than the generic ESF / Italian equivalent.  They seem to care more that you have a good experience (& their reputation and livelihood depends on it)
Bass or ultimate ski are generally great in France for example.

also booking private lessons, although more costly, definitely helps tailor the experience to what you need. A couple of those shared between your family ( you don’t all need to be the same level of gung ho for it to work) can be much better than a week of generic ski school lessons that crystal have sourced.