”

No chance I would ever want to live in a city.

I’m pretty sure wherever we go will have better services than here. I am starting to favour Aviemore because there if we don’t live there, we will end up driving there all the time to do things anyway.”

I live in a ‘city’ now and there isn’t much more I can do of the city suff that I couldn’t do in Aviemore, but there are a lot of things that I can’t do that I could do in Aviemore. You are right about having to keep on driving to Aviemore anyway if you live other places (remembering my parents driving up and down the road from Glenmore to and from Aviemore carting my sister and I about!)

K

As someone who grew up in the area and went to Kingussie high school, you don’t need to live in the village to go there. There are buses that pickup kids from all the way from Glenmore to the NE and past Laggan to the SW (I lived in Glenmore and Aviemore when I went to school there.)

Aviemore is probably better than Newtonmore/Kingussie as you are a lot closer to Inverness (work!) and there a lot more to do in the town. Also don’t forget to look slightly north of Aviemore to the likes of Nethy Bridge, Boat of Garten and Grantown. Different school there (N of Aviemore all go to Grantown Grammat school,) but similar with the school busses – don’t worry about having to drive kids for miles to the school.

I wish I could give my kids the upbringing I had ‘back home’ now so if you get the chance go for it.

K

I had similar, it was the spring round the pawls that had rusted and snapped. A couple of quid got me a new one and less than an hour to replace it.

K

Went to the premier of that in Belfast and I sort of know some of the faces and met most of the guys over the years.

That’s them in the back of this shot from Kilinchy pump track a couple of months ago. Nice lads and still infinately more skilled than I!

Last time I did it was about 15 years ago, get there early and prepared to keep the elbows out to keep your space.

If there are a few of you go somewhere near a cafe or McDonalds so you can nip in for drinks and the loo.

Anywhere on the Champs-Elysees you’ll get about the same view as they are up and down 10 times so you’ll see them passing 20.

First time I was there there was some roadworks and I stole an old cobblestone, my parents told me that was what caused Abdu to crash a few years later 🙂

K

I’ve got both of my kids Vitus Nucleus’s. 24″ for the 7 year old and a 27.5″ XS woman’s one for 11 year old daughter. Great bikes, definitely recommend.

K

I you do get one then keep it covered or in a garage.

I had one and while I loved it a combination of having a child plus rust killed it!

K

Love a monkey bath, but not had one for years (is a monkey shower a thing?)

It’s not racist to say oo-oo-ah-ah when describing the sound a monkey makes which is where a monkey bath.

K

How about a band name after a cyclist?

Abdoujaparov

K

Just got one for my son, £349 from CRC.

He had a Specialized Hotrocks 20 before and he was good on that.

Definately recommend them, should keep the value well enough too.

K

Volunteered years ago at one in Aviemore. Free entrance for not much work and got to see Crowded House at others play.

Walking distance to my parents house too which was handy!

K

It can happen so quickly. I was homeless with the kids for a short while about three years ago. My (ex)wife is an alcoholic and I had to leave our house with the kids. We stayed with my parents for a while, but my Mum got sick and we couldn’t stay there.

Luckily the housing association got us put up in a B&B as there were no places in hostels. I couldn’t afford to pay for rent anywhere as I was still paying the mortgage on the house that she refused to leave. In the end the police had to remove her and we got back home, but it was a nightmare.

I was accused of domestic abuse for ‘making her homeless’ when she was removed from the house as she had to sleep on one of her family members sofas for two nights……. Not worrying that her kids and I had to stay with my family for 6 months and then for a few weeks of the two kids and I living in a single room in a B&B – that was okay apparently…… still makes me so cross to think about it!

Anyway, shows how easily and quickly you can go from a nice confortable life to being homeless. If I didn’t have the two kids I would have been on the street.

K

I have 32’s on my early 90 Dawes Galaxy. Tight on the mudguards, but I’m sure you could push another couple of mm without.

K

South West or North east.

south West prettier but further away. North East is easy to get to (literally a few miles from the ferry into Larne is the start of the good part of the coast.)

North West (and West,) colder, wilder, harder to get to, but would be good too.

South East, nice, but coast isn’t as nice.

You can get a set of these from AliExpress.

V Brake Travel Converter

I’ve got them on my converted drop bar/MTB/Gravel bike. Same as the problem solver ratio converters.

K

My wee man did his first one last weekend. He loved it, and wants to do more.

K

I’m a (fat, old,) white man. So answer is no.

Wish I could though, I need to try to unlearn a lot of bad habits I think.

K

Don’t keep it in the house.

My ex-wife is an alcoholic and she went from being a function alcoholic to full blown very quickly. Hopefully you are aware and want to do something about it in time.

K

Yeah, my wee man has an MTB and a racing BMX. I wouldn’t let him offroad on the racing BMX, totally wrong for it. Look for a decent 2nd hand MTB, then look after it and sell it for the same price in a year again.

Yeah, I like all sorts of cycling. Just did a 100miles ride on the road at the weekend, able to chat with folk on the way round, draft behind them, go fast downhill. Different from MTB, which I did at the weekend too, chatting while stopped then blasting for a while, chatted a bit more.

Different fun 🙂

+1 for SYHA being good/normal. Stayed at Pitlochry, ate at Loch Morlich/Cairngorm (used to work there as a teen a long time ago!) and stayed at Inverary too a few months back.

K

Mary Peters is good, Helen’s Tower down the coast a bit in Bangor is good too. Anywhere else you’ll need the car to travel.

There are some trails on Cave hill too, but I’ve not done them and not sure they are hardtail friendly.

Road – yes, pretty much anywhere apart from the main roads.

Not done Glassie, but really enjoyed Comrie earlier in the year. Nice skills bit at the bottom to warm up then the trails were great. As mentioned above the gradings are at the higher end which is great if that’s what you are looking for.

Great Cafe too 🙂

K

I’ve pretty much given it up. Ex-wife was an alcoholic – and that brought a world of pain.

I can’t tell you what to do, but I’m just saying that she would have described her drinking much as you have until it just got worse to the point where I had to leave with the kids. She tried to cut down for a while, but it never worked, just came back worse.

What I’ve found from not drinking at social times is that I still have a good time with the newer alco-free beers. A lot of what I thought was the good mood from getting tipsy seems to have been just from the good mood of being with friends having a laugh – obviously it never goes beyond that stage as after 2-3 beers the alcohol would normally be obvious. It’s great being able to go out, have a cheap night then drive home.

To add another thing to worry about(!)

Keep a food diary. Try to correlate feeling poorly with when you eat.

I’ve been trying to work out what is going on with me for years.

99% I have various food intolerances (they have different effects). Eating a reasonable amount of gluten absolutely smashes me for days. A small amount it tolerable. I am just starting to feel slightly ok after eating 3 rolls and a pizza on the Saturday as we at a friends. It gives me massive headaches and severe fatigue, I have to sleep during the day, probably over 12hrs in total maybe more. And can barely function no chance of any exercise. I’m not touching the stuff intentionally again!

Posted my answer before reading this. Good to hear I’m not the only one – and I may look into the headaches thing as I’ve been finding I’ve been having some of them recently and wondering if that tallies into gluten too.

K

Sounds very familiar. I’m 44, and carrying a few stone extra and have for the last few years suffered from fatigue.

It’s a lot better now after finding I am gluten intolerant and also have low folate. I find that if I have a lot of gluten then the next day I feel exhausted (as well as being in the bathroom a lot!) or if I miss my folic acid tablets for a few days I just want to sleep.

I think the weight gain is more a symptom of the fatigue (when I’m tired I don’t want to do anything other than eat and sleep,) rather than the fatigue being a symptom of the weight gain.

Good luck.

K

I live in NI, and for some bizarre reason he is pretty popular here. He’s got one of the biggest shows on the radio and can stir up a lot of noise.

Personally I can’t stand him and would rather stick hot pokers in my ears than listen to him.

K

Totally agree. I lived in Innerleithen for about 10 years (before I got into MTB!) and it was a bit of a hole. Much much improved now and it’s a buzzing little town whereas before the main street was dead come 5pm.

K

For that price it’s perfect for the ‘retired and wanting to get out’ crowd. Also for the likes of me for short journeys to the shops and back.

Same experience at Fort William. They were very friendly and had a lot of time for everyone.

No fuss, some words are less offensive in different places. US, Spaz and Retard don’t seem to be offensive at all.

However words like ‘salad’ aren’t offensive in the US, but are hugely offensive in Scotland!

Sweet. Did similar for my daughter in respraying what was my old 26″ bike. Seeing her on it and having it fit her makes me wonder how on earth it ever fitted me!

Yeah, I used a friction shifter on a 10 speed XT before. It was one of the bar end ones on drop bars (gravel bike.) Worked well, but it takes longer to get ‘just right’ than clicking a few times up and down on a more modern one.

We’re coming from that direction so may do that too.

Aye,

And Comrie, and Glenlivet, and Glenmore, and watching the racing, and Laggan Wolftrax and once all the pesky racers are out of the way Fort Bill again with my bike.

Going to be a hectic trip 🙂

Going to over too and staying near Aviemore. My partner is coming back from a broken foot so can’t do anything gnarly either. We are planning a stop at Comrie on the way up to Aviemore, an afternoon at Glenlivet and then a day on the trails round Loch Morlich/Rothiemurchus area. Oh, I’m going to hit the wolftrax too, but I think she’ll just go for a walk.

I’m planning the Blue doon when the gondola is open again (Wednesday I think,) but I think it’ll be too much for her foot with standing for a long period. May just try some of the low down XC trails with her.

K

Yeah, I’ve had a couple of wide range cassette’s off them. I wouldn’t expect them to last as long as the expensive ones, but for the weight and price they have been great.

Also had a set of 27.5 air forks from them. A huge improvement from others in the price range (which were all heavy suntour, non-air forks.) Obviously not as adjustable of good as the Rockshoks at 4 times the price, but a huge upgrade on a low-end bike. Going to order a set of 26″ air forks for the other half from them too as they will be great for her bike.

K

Good luck. Be prepared for some bad times coming, but it will be worth it in the end – and hopefully she will get better.

It is the unfortunate truth that often with alcoholics that they must hit their own rock bottom before they can get better and they will try to drag you down with them. I look back and try to work out what I could have done differently, but I really can’t see how I could have changed anything apart from not letting it affect me so much and trying to fix the problem.

Good luck again. Keep yourself and your kids safe.

K

I have just gone through this – worst period of my life. Happy if you want to message me about it.

First and most important thing. There is nothing YOU can do to help her, only she can quit drinking and no matter what you do it will always be down to her. It will almost kill you to try to get her to stop.

Get in touch with your local Al-Anon group, that is an offshoot of AA for people who have been affected by others drinking https://www.al-anonuk.org.uk/ there are groups pretty much anywhere that has an AA meeting. Another place is various private facebook groups for Partners of Alcoholics.

How old are your children? Mine were young enough that I got in touch with Barnados as they have various schemes for helping children of addicts (drink or drugs.) Also you can call Social Services as they were a great help for me in backing me up and getting the support I needed as well as providing her help and trying to get her sober.

Most importantly, you need to keep yourself and the children healthy and safe and if your wife is willing to admit she has a problem there is help available for all of you. If she is unwilling to admit there is any issue then you’ll have to continue down the solicitor route – and document document document everything. Record calls, take photos, take notes, keep a diary. Alcoholics will do ANYTHING they can to protect themselves to making up total lies – I’ve been accused of abusing the children, been accused of beating her, been accused of stalking, gaslighting, domestic abuse, she tried to persuade Social Services that I was losing my mind, but it was really her entering my house and moving stuff about! – everything you can think of that she could throw to try to make me look bad to protect herself (none of it true by the way!)

She’s now apparently sober (but I don’t believe that for a second,) and she has managed to persuade Social Services that she is sober and much as I fought it we now have joint custody of the kids. I know it’s only a matter of time before the drink takes her again and I hope it doesn’t hurt the kids too much.

As I said before, happy to talk about this as unfortunately reading your original message it could have been written myself a couple of years ago.

K

Lived in Innerleithen for years (when I didn’t cycle much.) Great place. Worked in Edinburgh ~1hr commute each way.