So 3 weeks later…

– Most of the stuff I want is accessible, but the occasional album you really want to listen to isn’t. Super annoying.

– You can’t share Music with someone else. One person listening at a time only. Not sure if Unlimited allows you to share it with someone else though.

@donks the people building the building run through the cables and connect it to consumer unit in the building. Their electrician then tests all the connections using a temp power supply. My electrician then lays cabling from the house back to the building. So there’s a professional electrician checking all the work over at each stage.

@ballsofcottonwool I could be living in a rented home owned by an STW BTL millionaire so it may not be my own floor!

Cheers all, I’ll try my camping/yoga mat first.

Good shout. I think I have an old sleeping mat somewhere. Maybe that’ll do the trick?

I’ve had some success in the past with it, but also much weirdness.

I advertised a fancy item, with a price to match. Someone asked about it, I told them the price and got a load of abuse from them for “selling something that’s so expensive — can’t believe anyone would pay that”. My jaw figuratively dropped open when I read the responses. It was 25% of retail!

Funnily enough, a nice person off STW bought it and was very happy with it!

Another time, I was selling a bike. The guy tried to negotiate, then pulled out, and then started sending me messages about his life. Not sad lonely stuff, but stuff like “I went riding today, the woods were beautiful and I drank deeply of the solitude…

.

.

20 more pages”

That sort of thing.

Again, someone from STW bought the bike. Even couriered it up to where they lived.

These days I’m not on Facebook anymore. Too creepy.

Not lost anything yet.

But I did cash out my original stake between Dec-Jan to make sure I’d always be in the black!

Would have been 4.5x up if I’d cashed out my entire stake though :D

Btw, I don’t hold just BitCoin so I’ve not done too badly due to diversification. Still, waiting for someone to do something exciting with it instead of it just being a vehicle for speculation.

Thanks.

So what would an EIC cover? That the installed cables were documented. E.g: whether they were ducted etc like @cornholio98 said?

@cornholio thank you very much for that detailed response.

My own electrician is good to deal with. So I was hoping he could do the work and I could charge this back to the company installing the building.

I’ve asked for the company to send someone else. They’re sending one of their own round (who’ve been good to deal with) instead of a sub contractor. Let’s see how it goes.

Toyed with the idea of having a little fund to buy and own music monthly. Would make me listen to albums a bit more. Should be cheap to get CDs second hand these days surely?

The problem with physical media is storage and accessibility I guess.

Been trying it for a couple of days. Some of my faves are missing, but maybe Unlimited will plug the gap. Still saves £8 a month which is not bad.

Any others to consider? Tidal?

The problem with my listening, is I find myself listening exclusively to the same stuff over and over again. I guess the only way to figure out how well it’ll work is to try Prime music for a month and see how it works out.

Wonder if there’s an API for it as well. Would be handy to figure out track overlap.

To be human is to err.

To be a parent is to err several times.

It’s one of the few jobs where you’ll have crippling self doubt even when you’re doing it well. Try and figure out a coping strategy. I find voicing what I feel works quite well. They may not understand what you’re saying, but speaking out loud now means you’ll resort to extreme behaviour less. Like “please listen to what I’m saying, because I get very upset/sad when you don’t” something along those lines. Eventually they will get it though, but you have to practice it.

Someone walking their dog up a very clearly signposted trail.

– The dog wasn’t liking it. The gradients makes it pretty much “un get-uppable”.

– The human wasn’t liking it.

– The trail was marked at multiple spots as bikes only.

I wonder what they were thinking.

Giffgaff for £12 you get 4GB data and unlimited texts and calls. Been good so far for me. If you want a referral link for some bonus credit then message me.

It’s hard to say without knowing your kids and you. I go to Bergen every year, and Oslo every other year. Norway is pretty child friendly, but I’ve not found a ton of things to do that you can’t do anywhere else.

We usually take a ride in the cable car to the top of the little hills in Bergen, go to the pier, hit a couple of the coffee shops for coffee and cake and spend some time around the fjords. In Oslo, we do a wee bit of shopping, go to the soft play, hit the parks (some nice ones in the old part of town) and coffee and cake again.

Like someone’s said, the scenery is just obscenely beautiful, but kids can only be breathless about it for so long. If you do want to do a bit of exploring then the train is brilliant. There are coaches with children’s play areas which kids absolutely love. We went from Bergen to Oslo (8 hours on a train), you could maybe go to Vos and check it out with the kids.

We were hoping to go to a hytte this year, but they’re still a bit too young at the moment. Also, taking crap like car seats around is a real pain.

We’ve also been to Sweden (Stockholm) and they had a few more things to do, like the Pippi Longstocking museum/experience, the Vassa boat museum and such. Still, Scandinavia is grim when the cold draws in. I enjoyed it there, but if you’re buying food all the time then it becomes pretty pricy toot sweet. We enjoyed Portugal a lot more. In terms of things to do for the kids and for us. Norway/Sweden will become better once they’re older and can spend more time outdoors.

@willard sounds like it’s time to get a solicitor to sue your previous conveyancer!

Found some Salter kitchen scales for £10

No more messing about with analogue scales for me. All those weights were getting tedious.

All tat from what I can see apart from the Bezos Brand Home Eavesdropping Devices!

Those boxes looked good, but they’re not on offer :(

On the lookout for some garage shelving, but can’t see anything decent.

FROOME IN!

CORBYN OUT!

Wait, what are we arguing about again?

Nothing anymore really.

Went from a shitty hardtail that was way too big for me when I started riding to a really nice short travel full sus. Then got a “hardcore” hardtail for the winter and just because I liked the look of it. Then got a long travel full sus which is ridiculously light and incredibly capable.

I’m now on a mission to reduce the number of bikes I own and ride more. Doing ok on the former, not so well on the latter. If I ever ride as much as I did a few years ago then I’d think about getting a new bike. Even then, doubt I would buy something new.

How long do the Gravity Droppers last? Reverbs feel like they’ll keep going as long as you keep on top of servicing?

How do the Gravity Droppers compare to the Rockshox Reverbs?

How much do SRAM charge for a service?

Damn. Sounds like this is going to be tough one. Thanks for the responses.

I’ve just spoken to them and they’re saying that if whoever comes along has details of the booking and something saying it’s ok for them to use the booking then things will be ok. I’ll give it a shot.

Status Anxiety Flip.

Mens Leather Wallets

Cheap-ish, has been pretty good for the last 3 years and it sees a lot of heavy use!

@stumpy01 if you were in Colombo, or one of the larger cities then Sri Lanka can be busy. If you travel a few hours from the airport then it can be idyllic bliss.

I’d suggest maybe a week in Sri Lanka (stay in the South for the beaches, the centre for the mountains. Or a bit of both. The island is small enough that you can do both in a week). A week in Nepal for some riding, and a week, or maybe 5 days in the Maldives.

If you want do some kitesurfing in SL then message me. I have a mate I can put you in touch with.

@kimbers holy shit. Did you have to just whistle for it and stomach the cost. or could you have done something about it?

You shouldn’t run because running is a shit form of exercise.
But seriously, why punish yourself through something if you’re not a pro? Exercise is meant to be fun isn’t it?

Got a breakdown of the costs and the materials cost for the cabling is 10x what I can get it for.

You read that right, 10x.

They’ll do the wiring to a consumer unit in the outbuilding and supply a dead test certificate. I’m not sure what this means for my electrician though. Can he/she do a P Certificate if they’ve not wired the consumer unit themselves?

There’s some truth to it. I think the story is his dad made him take ballet before he boxed. However, this is from Bob Arum, so the truthiness of it is… well… you make what you want of that.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/sport/boxing/42264257

He really is something else. Seen him fight a few times and have been really impressed.

People talk him down a bit because he complains to the ref a bit. He took several low blows in his only loss as a pro to Salido. I think that put him on his guard about that crap.

Hopefully get to see him in the flesh one day.

Where’s the bit where…

– He opens the garage door and curses because the car and the bin are blocking it and he has to run around and move them?

– He rides off and realises he’s forgotten his helmet and has to turn back?

– He’s forgotten that his pump can’t attach to the valve extender he uses with his deep section rims?

– The ungodly creaking from carbon rims freaks him out?

– He’s getting up off the saddle because you’ve got a case of numb-plums?

@ElShalimo I’ve also ordered the S1 book from the same series @jolmes referenced.

@docgeoffyjones why not. Maybe we can start with the first chapter in Stroud and work our way up from there?

This search has made me remember that Glyn was the textbook I had back in the day. That was not great. I’ll be purchasing a copy of Stroud soon. Thanks for all the responses.

May even treat myself to a copy of Bostock and Chandler while I’m here.

@turin thanks for the detailed response. I really appreciate it.

I’ve also asked the outbuilding company to supply a breakdown for the installation cost. You’re right, it’s not cheap. I’m happy to pay what they’re asking for the actual building because they’ve got a reputation for being good at what they do, and it seems like good quality work. So no problems there. It’s just the cabling quote that sounds excessive. Maybe they pass the burden of dealing with subcontractors onto the customer and charge a hefty markup for essentially co-ordinating that work.

This is the work they may have to do:

We run a cable from the fusebox in the house to the fusebox (consumer unit) installed in the garden. Our surveyors will also look to see if you have any spare capacity in your existing fusebox, or if you’ll need a sub consumer unit installed. The quote will include a part P certificate sign off by our fully qualified electricians.

– I have spare capacity in my existing fusebox.

– The ethernet cable will follow the same route as the electrical cable.

Basically it’s about 6m inside the house through a plasterboard wall before going through the external brickwork. It then goes into the garden where it will be clipped to a fence (thought I am thinking about recessing it), takes a right turn, and then goes into the outbuilding. The total cabling run per cable is around 25-28m.

Either way, £400-£600 is money well worth saving. Worst case I could drill the holes, lay the cabling and see if someone is happy to connect and certify it for me.

I’m pretty inexperienced at this sort of thing, but how would you figure that out?

Is £1000 excessive for materials then? I’m guessing it will be something like:

30m armoured cable for electricity

30m armoured cat6e for internet

Sockets

Ethernet patch panel

Something to connect to the fuse box

That’s it? Looks like 25m of armoured cable is around £50, so I’m not sure where the money is going.

@nwmlarge for sure! Which is why I’ll be digging the trench.

@turin no offense taken. The work is being done as part of building the outbuilding. So the quote is from the people who build the outbuilding. I’m assuming they subcontract the work to one of their electricians.

Not aware of what the hourly rate is, as it’s all part of the job. But it “sounds” like it’ll all be done in a day.

I’ve already asked a local electrician to quote. So I’m waiting on that. I’m not sure what is and isn’t reasonable for this stuff if I’m honest. I know skilled electrical labour costs money, but £1200 I’d have thought would cover a few days’ worth of labour.

The breakdown I have from the original quote just shows 3 items. One for the electrical line install, the ethernet cable install and for an ethernet socket. There is no burial of the line in the quote. Just laying and clipping the cables. They’ve told me I can dig the trench if I want to bury the cable and that will save a lot of money.

The costs for the outbuilding include sockets and lights so there’s no breakdown for that. It’s just an option you tick along with the lighting you select. The lighting includes fitting a panel light, hood and deck lights, and an external light attached to a PIR. There are 6 electrical sockets in total and you get to choose where they go. The cost also includes a part P certification.

I’ve been quoted roughly £1200 for:

– 25m of armoured cable for electricity.

– 30m of armoured Cat6

– An ethernet socket

Sounds pretty steep. They will have to drill through a couple of walls, but I’m having a hard time believing it’s going to be more than a day’s work. Materials don’t look like they’ll cost more than £200, even if you try really, really hard.

Any opinions?