Just back from a week in Les Arcs, where conditions were a bit mixed

Sunday started with snow, but the temperature soon rose and it turned to rain. It poured down for the whole day, had to stop at around 11:30 as we were saturated

Monday was a bit moody, high lifts were all closed, but managed to get a full day in. Given the rain the day before conditions were better than expected

Tuesday brought a good dump of snow and very strong winds, high lifts were closed and as the wind got stronger more and more lifts closed. They briefly opened a couple up again, but soon closed all but one lift until the end of the day.

Wednesday was a mostly clear day and following the snow on Tuesday off piste was (mostly on). Ice could be found underneath the powder, so some sections were very tricky with the snow having drifted lots. I got caught out coming back onto the piste on my first run down the hill and hit a small solid block of ice. This sent me down onto my front and twisted my knee. Carried on until lunch, but that was the end of my week due to my knee injury.

Thursday and Friday were both clear sunny days and the only days when the highest lifts opened. Hopefully some better luck next year.

I’ve been through the RM claims process a couple of times now and it’s pretty straight forward

Usually takes at least 3 weeks for the claim to be processed and they refund the value of the item (what it sold for on EBay) and your postage

Hopefully what you sold wasn’t worth more than the £50 covered as standard by RM

Back to the original question – since my last post I’ve tried a couple more

Morrisons unsweetened soy, which I’d have again
Morrisons oat, which was awful – tasted very sweet

Alpro unsweetened oat is still the best I’ve had

I’ve had one of the Decathlon B’Twin tilt 120 bikes for about 6 months (was £180 when I bought, now £200)

I use mine for a 2 mile ride to the station then a 3 mile ride the other side. I do have to carry it up and down some steps during the commute, which is fine – according to the website it weighs 14.5kg

For the money I’ve been very impressed – mudguards as standard and even a set of lights (more use for being seen than actually seeing)

There is a lighter singlespeed version for £150, but personally I’d rather have some gearing (it’s a 6 speed gripshift)

The answers usually appear on the forum of a well known money saving website – I suspect as a result some of the prizes may end up being won by non-mountain bikers

I was lucky and won one of the daily prizes a couple of years ago. I still have it now and it’s in regular use

My predictions…

Conservative majority ~25-30 seats
Labour and Lib Dems make gains in London, Labour losses up north
SNP make gains, but not enough to get Ruth Davidson skinny dipping in Loch Ness
Brexit Party get their first MPs (~3ish)
Plaid unchanged, Greens retain Brighton
Labour to take my seat, MK North

Voted about an hour ago tactically to try and get rid of the Tories. They hold a majority of ~1800 in my constituency (Milton Keynes North) over Labour.

Labour have been making a big push in my area, most leaflets through the door and the only party to actually knock on my door (once just over a week ago and again tonight to check whether I had voted).

I asked what the turnout was like when I went to vote, ‘huge’ was the answer.

My parents are in a normally safe Labour seat and typically vote Lib Dem or Greens – they both voted Labour, my brother who is also in a normally safe labour seat (different one to my parents) also typically votes Lib Dem or Green is also voting Labour.

I’m in my 40’s too and am more anti-Tory than at any stage in my life

I’ll be voting tactically to try and get rid of the Tories from my seat (~1800 majority currently)

I can’t ever foresee a situation where I would consider voting Tory, I cannot forgive them for what they’ve done to this country

I switched to Oat Milk about 18 months ago when I started trying to cut down on the amount of meat/dairy I was consuming.

I started out with Oatly following a recommendation from a work colleague. I stuck with it for a while, but found it had two limitations – it separated in the carton (I forgot to shake a couple of times when having breakfast) and displayed similar behaviour in tea/coffee.

So I tried the Alpro Oat Milk which is much better – I’ve gone to the unsweetened version now and it’s decent stuff. It doesn’t have the same problem as Oatly.

The only other thing I’ve tried is the Oatly single cream replacement, which I actually prefer to normal cream as it tastes lighter to me.

My predictions…

SNP make gains in Scotland (I reckon just a couple of seats at most for other parties)
BP also make gains from both Tories and Labour
LD make a few gains (~25 – 30 seats total)
Labour lose quite a few seats (JC has to stand down as a result)
Tories retain most seats overall, but no overall control
Other parties remain pretty much unchanged

My seat is Tory and last time round his majority was significantly reduced, I voted labour last time out, but can’t do the same now with an unclear message from them

Two mates have the Enduro wheels and overall they seem to be decent

One is pretty heavy on gear and he’s put a couple of small dents in the rim, but nothing too bad – approx 6 months worth of riding

The other managed to put a really bad dent in the rim – it pretty much folded flat onto the rim bed. He was probably running pressure a little low and only had EXO Maxxis fitted. He took it to Hunt to get a replacement and I’m told they replaced it an exceptionally reasonable price, I think while he waited

+1 for getting a helmet – based on the dents in mine I would have hit my head several times

Consider having some lessons before you go – I learnt to snowboard 6 years ago and I knew I’d be the only novice on the trip. Did I want to spend the week learning to snowboard by myself or go snowboarding with everyone else?

I booked the learn to snowboard course they offered at the snowdome in Milton Keynes, which at the time cost about £200 (included a years membership of the snowdome (discounted entry on future visits), 8 hours tuition and some free slope time). I then went to practice more after I’d done the course. I spent my first trip improving my technique with everyone else rather than just learning to snowboard as a result.

I’ve managed to do every day. My usual amounts of biking and climbing so far, but I’ve managed a definite increase in the amount of walking I’m doing and had my first ever go at Yoga

From my experience leavers are most concerned with making foreigners disappear

Two friends I have who voted leave recently tried (independent of each other) to convince me about how bad all the foreigners were.

One of them even thought that once Brexit happened the government would go around the country rounding up all the foreigners, then send them back to where they came from.

Another Kinetic fan here too

I’ve lost count (quite comfortably) of how many bearings I’ve had from them

Always arrive within a couple of days and decent quality

At £45 an hour I’d be looking to do it myself – I taught myself (admittedly on aluminium frames) how to change bearings. I’ve since done carbon and provided you’re careful and take your time you should be OK

I’ve re-used existing links more times than I care to remember

KMC chains have been my choice for several years now and the supplied links have proven fine to split and re-use

I only once had an issue where a SRAM powerlink came apart while riding on an old DH bike, but it was an old and a clearly very worn one

Since you need something which is either in Merthyr or accessible by train I’ll second going to Cardiff

Cardiff Castle https://www.cardiffcastle.com/ is right in the centre of the city and easily accessible walking from Cardiff Central train station

If you somehow manage to get transport then the National Museum of History (St Fagans) would be my recommendation https://museum.wales/stfagans/

I think whether you get Yodel depends on when you order

I ordered something from Wiggle earlier this week, but paid for the next day guaranteed delivery, which arrived next day via Hermes

Most of the time for CRC and Wiggle stuff I order seems to be sent via Royal Mail

The only times I’ve had stuff sent Yodel is when I’ve ordered on a Saturday, then the order has been despatched on Sunday, when I guess Royal Mail don’t do collections

A few years back I happened to live in the Rochester and Strood ward when Mark Reckless defected to UKIP then resigned his seat

UKIP somehow managed to get hold of my phone number and called to try and convince me to vote for him

I didn’t answer the call at the time, but googled the number and found out who was trying to call

When they called back again I just declined the calls

I’ve been with TCB for probably about 10 years – had £1.1k cashback in that time

Very occasionally the cashback gets declined or doesn’t track, but that hasn’t happened for a good few years now

I use TCB several times a month, mostly for the same few companies every time

So for Morzine I’m almost always driving down as part of a group of mates.

We’ve always done it in a single day and it’s quite a long drive (we get a tunnel crossing at a very early hour of the morning) and we usually arrive around 6 – 7pm

On previous trips rentals seemed to be between 90 – 130 euro per day. Some of the others in the group did rent and for the most part the bikes were in decent condition.

Assuming you’re doing mostly bike park riding and you own a DH bike, then I’d take it with you unless you’re doing a very short trip.

At my old workplace about 18 months ago once everyone had arrived for the day they called everyone together and told us that one of my colleagues had committed suicide over the weekend (he hung himself).

He was slightly younger than me (late 30’s), I didn’t know him that well, he seemed outwardly fine whenever I spoke to him.

Lord of the Squirrels had just officially opened when I did it last year – it’s basically a massive climb (took me 2 hours – which was rideable the whole way up) followed by a single long descent. If you decide it’s too tough then there isn’t really an easy option to cut short aside from riding back down the climb.

There may well be snow still up in the alpine (I encountered a couple of short stretches where I was off and pushing – I was there mid July) and there were plenty of small bitey insects around.

I’ve been to Whistler twice now and had guiding once – I ended up using James at Ride BC (http://www.ridebc.ca/) who did one day for us in Squamish (he picked us up from Whistler). He was very good and I’d definitely recommend him. We did the trails around the Alice Lake area, although it was all on official marked trails (so you could self guide using Trailforks if you wanted) it did help alot to have somebody who could plan a route appropriate to the groups skill level which flowed well.

Someone will be along shortly to recommend Bearback who I also got in contact with – they did initially respond to my messages, but when the replies stopped I looked elsewhere and ended up with James.

I did do comfortably numb, but it wasn’t really my cup of tea – it never really went up or down much and involved lots of riding over bumpy tree roots and had no flow. I reckon there are better trails elsewhere – try the Lord of the Squirrels loop.

I’ve done Morzine three times (full week trips) in July – conditions can vary significantly

Had everything from 30 degrees scorching sunshine to 5 degrees cloudy, cold and rainy

If I remember correctly it’s rained on two out of the three trips and we lost a couple of days riding as a result

There is loads of lift accessible riding and I’ll be back there again this July coming

Last time I needed to sell a car I went via EBay

Sold first time but the buyer never bothered to get in contact with me (sold as an auction)

I then got in touch with the person who had the second highest bid against the car, he decided he wanted it, but couldn’t make his mind up when he wanted to collect (3 weeks passed with no firm commitment) so I relisted

I got a message around midday on a Saturday from a potential buyer – was I in and could he collect today

He came round that afternoon with a trailer and took the car away (car was a running MOT failure)

Once it had sold I got loads of messages ‘was it still available’, ‘I really wanted to buy your car’ etc. I have no idea why these people hadn’t bothered to get in touch earlier.

At the time (not sure if this still is the case) but if you sell on an auction via EBay for a car and the buyer doesn’t complete the transaction then you can’t reclaim the fees

So I’ve just had to replace my old one while I was on a riding holiday (Hydrapak which sprung a leak) and had a choice between Osprey and Camelbak

I don’t like the Camelbak closing mechanism (filler cap), so the choice was effectively made for me

Previously had Evoc, Hydrapak and Source all of which I’d buy again

Historically I’ve pretty much always voted Labour, Lib Dem or Greens, but I did once vote Tory in the 2015 GE

My MP is Mark Lancaster (he voted against everything in the most recent round of indicative votes) who got back in during 2017 albeit with a greatly reduced majority (I voted for the Labour candidate to try and get rid of the Tories)

With the political events of the last few years one thing is for certain – I’ll never ever be voting Tory ever again – I can’t forgive them for what they’ve done to the country

I’ve just switched to Bulb – no complaints so far

Took a while for the switch to go through

In the past I’ve usually gone for a 1 year fix and switched supplier every year once the deal ran out

I’m paying slightly less than my old supplier

Most of the time things go fine whenever I’ve shipped things (I sell quite alot of stuff via both Pinkbike and EBay)

I have had a few issues recently (got scammed with a GoPro I sold, jersey I sold was lost in the mail (currently awaiting a Royal Mail claim) and a shifter which was sent fully working, then reported as faulty on arrival)

I usually try to make sure that whatever I send is covered by compensation just in case (£20 cover is standard for 1st/2nd class RM, which rises to £50 if recorded. Hermes give cover to £20 at no extra cost and you can pay for extra cover)

I do 7 miles each way which I do almost always 5 days a week, there are many reasons why…

1. Fitness – I’ve been regularly commuting by bike now for 5 1/2 years and it’s definitely improved my general fitness
2. No traffic (I live in Milton Keynes) so it’s majority on the redways (separated from the roads) – it always takes me just less than 30 minutes each way
3. The environment – we all need to get out of our cars more and this is me doing my bit
4. The cost – the bike costs very little to keep running – usually a pair of tyres every 18 months, brake blocks a few tubes and every so often a derailleur, chain etc. My bike is a (roughly) 13 year old Cube which I got originally on cycle to work, it’s not worth alot now (was about £950 new) and I’ve definitely more than had my moneys worth
5. Fresh air and seeing wildlife – Woodpeckers are quite a regular site and I’ve even seen an otter

I happened to me last July – got back from a biking trip to Whistler and two days later they called the entire company into the room (about 22 of us) and told us everyone was up for redundancy

This was followed by individual meetings where we were told if they wanted to keep us. In the end they got rid of just under 50% of us

I had pretty much decided that I was going to start looking for a new job when I got back from holiday

I’d been there for just under 5 years so I did get some redundancy (just statutory), so basically I ended up getting paid to go job hunting

I had three job offers in just under two weeks, one of which I accepted and I’m still there now

At the time the recruitment consultants I spoke to told me they were having their busiest July/August pretty much ever

I got scammed fairly recently via EBay selling a GoPro

Shipped in working condition (I checked it before posting – photos in my listing even showed it powered on) including a WiFi remote

Returned broken (wouldn’t turn on) and the WiFi remote was missing (the buyer claimed they couldn’t find it to return it)

EBay sided with him and I was forced to issue a refund

Sent to a UK address so the GSP wasn’t involved

My current commute is 7 miles each way – takes just under 30 minutes regardless of direction

My general rule of thumb is anything under 10 miles is doable every day – I regularly do my 7 mile commute 5 days a week

Previous cycling commutes I’ve done have been 2 miles, 4 miles and 16 miles. I found the later I could only do 3-4 days a week as it tired me out too much for leisure riding.

In my current house…

The first one I used came as a recommendation from a work colleague. He fitted a new towel radiator in my bathroom. The work he did looked fine, but when I looked he hadn’t properly supported the pipework under the floorboards – I improved the support myself and it only took a couple of minutes to do so.

The second one I used I found based on google for local plumbers – he was based only a couple of streets away. He fitted a new ballcock in my cold water tank. Again the work was fine, but I felt £120 for 15 minutes work was a bit much.

The third one I used I found via Checkatrade and he fitted a new boiler for me a couple of years ago. He did a superb job and I’d definitely use him again. He quoted a fair price for the work and even sorted out a couple of other small jobs at no extra cost while he was there.

I’ve now done two week trips to Whistler twice now

Both times I’ve done 5 day bike park passes and the rest of the time outside the park (5 days in the park was enough – I didn’t feel like I wanted more)

Most of the non-bike park trails are easy to view on Trailforks and you don’t need a data connection for the app to be useful enough for basic navigation

I did Lord of the Squirrels twice last year and it was easy to navigate via Trailforks – it’s basically a very long pedal up (took me 2 hours) followed by a long descent. It was definitely worth the effort, bear in mind depending on the time of year there may be snow and/or midges. If you don’t have a vehicle to get to the start point, then it’s a fairly flat pedal down the marked Sea to Sky cycle trail.

As a general rule the pedalling up is easier in Squamish. We did try and sort a day with Bearback, who initially replied to my messages, but stopped replying to my mails. In the end we went with James at Ride BC (https://www.ridebc.ca/) who picked us up from Whistler for a day trip out. We did trails near to Alice Lake, where the pedal up to most of the trails is shorter and easier. It’s quite easy to repeat trails here if you like. For example let’s say you really liked Rupert, then it’s easy to loop round up the same climb back to the start. James put a very good day together for us & I’d definitely recommend him.

The trails in Squamish near the University (Mamquam Road) are pretty easy to self guide. There is a marked climb or fireroad pedal (which snakes its way up) and most of the routes down leave and re-join the fireroad at various points

There are trail marker posts directing the route (including the name of the trail) in both Whistler and Squamish

So in Milton Keynes based upon my observations there has been an increase in the amount of homeless people here

I regularly travel through the centre by bike and there are often tents pitched in the underpasses – I also saw somebody living in a bus stop

Just recently one of the main spots where I used to see a number of tents has been vacated – I don’t know if the people have just moved to a different location or whether they have been provided with accomodation etc.

I seem to be one of the few who actually likes Keaveny and Mary-Anne Hobbs, neither of whom I get to listen to any more

I’ve started listening to Zoe Ball instead in the mornings

I got scammed on EBay last year selling a GoPro where EBay/PayPal sided with the buyer

He claimed it wasn’t working on arrival and insisted on a return

He shipped back a broken GoPro and failed to include the WiFi remote which I sold with it (chased him about it, but he claimed he couldn’t find it)

I didn’t have note of the serial numbers so couldn’t prove anything

They just assumed I must have sent a faulty item (even though the photos in my listing showed the GoPro turned on with the display showing) and accepted he couldn’t find the remote