Left the house at 10am and was early for the train in Amberley at 3pm. Usually ride mid week and was peed off that I had to share the route with lots more people!

I’m looking forward to it. Good tail wind forecast!

Bishops Waltham, milburys then SDW to Amberley tomorrow. Last big ride before sdw in a day in 2 weeks.

Thanks everyone! 5th until the 12th. A friend that lives in Geneva is coming up to stay the weekend with his bike as well.

Whyte t130 2015. Great all-rounder. Great fun on trails but I’ve been training for sdw in a day so been putting in some serious miles on it and it hasn’t really skipped a beat. Replaced the tyres with nobby nics. Slight rotation (1/2mm maybe) in dropper post which I’ll have to get looked at but despite the amount of abuse it’s been great. Meet lots of people who are envious!

I’ll have a camel back and saddle bag. For some reason I prefer weight on my body rather than the bike.

I’ve had the nobby nics on for a few months now riding the south downs and qecp and only had one puncture (massive thorn) so I do trust them. Open to other suggestions though.

The western part is rolling. I’ve been concentrating on old Winchester hill and butser hill for my climbing as well as short sharp climbs near home.

Food wise, what’s best? I’m thinking of greggs sausage rolls and some gel bars and flap jack.

I live at the western end so not too much climbing but I know Winchester to qecp very well now.

Not following the training schedule on the website as I work shifts and have a 14month old so I’m going for as much saddle time as possible. Averaging 4 x 30km + rides a week with an hour here and there. Managed 150km since Thursday but that’s an exception.

Staying with nobby nics for training as the resistance is helping but will change a couple of weeks before hand. New padded shorts, grips and possibly saddle 2 weeks before as well.

Thanks CG, I’ll look into it.

I commute from BW to Swanwick and it’s easier to stick to the lanes via Durley, Botley then Manor Farm. Lots of gates and styles. I’m in the process of trying to get a letter written to Hampshire County council to get the disused railway line from BW to Botley station opened up as a cycle route. Sainsburys were apparently going to finance it until they pulled the plug. Anybody got experience of how to get the ball rolling?

I live 2 miles from the bowman so would recommend it but for somewhere less known try the brickmakers in Swanmore. I don’t do small portions and the food is great. Nice local ales and bikes can be left out front in plain sight or round back in the beer garden.

It’s a public forum so I don’t really want to get into a slagging match but it can be pot luck what you actually get in the read back!

Don’t get me started on American carriers and biz jets…..

I’ve probably spoke to you Dan. I do BNN/LAM arrivals and WOBUN/BUZAD and BPK deps. If you hear a dour crabbit jock trying to be polite but failing with certain eastern European budget airlines, that’ll be me.

Thanks folks, couple of questions?

Is the garmin edge able to have OS maps downloaded on to it?

The etrex looks quite bulky. Apart from some mounting issues is it quite big on the handle bars?

I always buy the OS map for an area and will plan my route using it. I could stare at them all day! I’d then use whichever unit I choose for quick reference on the move and I want audible alerts if I stray off an uploaded route.

She’s now 13 months so feels like years ago.

Mum fed then expressed up until 4 months so I had very little to do with prep.

After she was weaned on to bottles we always had one ready during the day but as said after 2 hrs we made a fresh bottle. For night time we used bottled follow on milk. Open, pour, feed, sleep. Very easy.

She has generally slept from 7 till 6am and dropped the middle the night feed after 8 months. We just wish she would sleep until 7am!

We ignore mums net etc as it’s full of contradiction and our health visitors have been hit or miss. They work from a check list which bugged us so we just tuned in to what our daughter wants and make it up as it goes along.

Holiday Inn at the science museum. A bit out of town but not far from the start. See you there.

I’ve been up a couple of times and have a few mates there. The difference in size between a380 and a321 from above makes me giggle. “aw look, it’s had a baby”

I’m not ATC at Heathrow.

Although damage to the aircraft is a valid point, one of the major factors of these things is their effect on the ability of the pilot to manage the aircraft.

The altitude where these glory toys are usually found is round about the altitudes where the pilots are at their most busy ie, on approach or on departure. The bloody things are a distraction at the busiest time of any flight.

From an ATC perspective it also takes away time from us. The pilot reports it to us, we copy down the details and pass them on to the relevant police authority. In the time it takes to do this, I could have given umpteen instructions to aircraft to make their flights more safe and efficient.

I truly believe there is a need for these things (survey/surveillance etc) but there has to be a register and a licence requirement for anything over a specific weight.

We call it north about, or south about. Depending jet stream depends whether bnn or ock gets the kicking in the morning. Lam just gets battered all the time though….

Worked a united out of Heathrow to San Francisco sometime last year. Usually they fly up over Scotland but this guy confused the lot of us as he flew East out through Clacton.

Had a chat with him when he checked in and he said tower had asked him to confirm his routing as well!

Turns out some smart person in United flight plans figured out there was massive winds blowing up over Scandinavia so filed his plan via Stockholm. Turns out it saved him 1hr!

The space Is just wide enough for a car so can’t extend unfortunately.

I’ll get a picture up, that way it’ll be easier to see the scenario. There is a dropped kerb as initially the drive was used to park cars behind the 2 houses, but for over 20 years our house used the drive as both Houses stopped parking round the back and they reverted to gardens. Next door at the time either didn’t have a car or parked out front. We have no proof of this other than verbal agreement.

From what I know of the deeds the boundary line runs right down the middle but I can’t remember the small print. We’re meeting our solicitor this week about wills so I’ll ask her to look into it.

I’ve already drawn up sass style breach tactics to occupy the house.

He has the same width as half of the drive the opposite side so good access. Only reason he would need to use the drive would be for heavy plant and materials if building an extension etc.

I don’t think access to our garden would ever be an issue as we do own half of the drive. We want to be able to continue parking in it un hindered because of shift work and little Street parking.

I wish the previous owners bought it off the old lady who lived next door originally as she never needed it, but it’s by with now.

Cheers folks. The drive is only for parking as we both have a fence at the end of the drive. The only access past the bottom if the drive is by foot through gates to access our gardens. As I said earlier, he also has access to his garden the other side of his house.

I’m leaning towards buying it, but we don’t have limitless cash so will have to see what the offer is.

Ex vehicle electrician then electronics technician in the reme. Served 9 years, now an civvie atco so work with the RAF a lot!

I wouldn’t be here now if it wasn’t for the quals I got through the army.

I loved it as I got a sack full of adventure training quals but I was itching to try something new.

Most of my mates are now artificers and they’re chat is that reme is going down the pan moral wise. Most are itching to leave and ones even going commission in the AGC to get away from it.

I’d look more to the RAF or navy for technical trades these days but I’ve been out of the loop for 8 years now.

Do you have the mad collies that scare my wee working cocker?! Just as I left you the lassie phoned so had to take the phone round to the top car park. I’m probably going for a ride in the woods on Friday afternoon if anyone is about.

I usually mean west walk/woodend when I talk of forest of Bere but i understand it covers a larger area.

Walk there most days with the dog. Found a phone yesterday and started chatting to a biker from on here. Was in a bit of a rush so didnt quite catch their name!

Yeh the fall at the end was within sight of the lift que as well but my legs were wobbly by then!

It was a great run. I was actuality on tellies doing it but my powder technique with them needs work so played it safe and stayed with alpine turns.

We went to the restraunt at the bottom lift most days with the baby and the staff were great with her. On Thurs and Friday definitely noticed a couple of groups with a guide who sounded like they’d came from val for the day.

Tinybits, this was 3Rd run down on Friday

Yeh Monday was soup but still managed above the clouds for an inversion and nice view of mont blanc before it disappeared! Good stuff on your 5 year old managing top 2 lifts.

I was about the tenth person off the marquise lift when it finally opened on Friday morning. Possibly the best powder run from I’ve ever done.

Just back from Sainte Foy. Massive thanks to Stevo, Iona and the chalet staff for making our first skiing trip with our 11month old daughter a success! She had a great time! The food was the best I’ve had on a trip!

Unfortunately my wife picked up an injury mid week so missed the best of the powder towards the end! Such a great resort. Only 4 chairs but the variety of terrain and off piste ment I was never bored.

Having James there running the back country course for the 6 other guys in the chalet was invaluable for advice on the best tree runs!

Finally got round to getting ours set up. My dad gave me all his old records which includes;

Led zep 1, 2 and 3. All original press in mint condition

Cat Stevens back catalogue, original press including first single “I Love my dog”

The who live at Leeds, original.

Oh, and the smarties party album.

My uncle has the bob Dylan back catalogue but refuses to give me it.

Bought royal blood and some black keys to modernize it a bit.

Forest of bere is boggy at the moment. Went for a night ride on Thurs and found that someone has started putting logs across some if the drier singletrack up near the main car park. I don’t think it’s kids as it’s a very quiet little section in the dense woods north of the main carpark. It’s still worth a play for an hour.

Schwarze cafe on kantstrasse for breakfast. Spelling may be off but it’s near the zoo to the west of the teir garden. I cannot emphasise how amazing it is.

Went to Reykjavik out of Gatwick with them for a stag do. The crew were very good. Kept the drink flowing but gave us the impression they wouldn’t stand for any nonsense which made us behave. I fly with ba a lot and I found wow airs customer outlook was less stuffy and more friendly.

As for the plane, it was modern and clean but no entertainment which doesn’t bother me on shortish haul.

Very surprised to see their onwards connections to the states and particularly anchorage. Kept that in the memory bank.

Not read any reviews on them so can’t comment on that but I thought they were rather good.