I don’t change the spec until something breaks, wears out or isn’t working.

Road bike (6 years old !!) is completely unchanged
Full Suss was unchanged until a wheel, brake and drivechain refresh after 5 years – old bits put on a cheap rigid SS
Hardtail was a custom build so no changes there.

Planning a new roadbike that will equally be unchanged unless I need to swap the stem (planning on getting a proper bike fit)

Nest – I did some work for the company that build Hive and I wouldn’t get one fitted to my home, especially now that BG bought them.

I use the recipe that came with our breadmaker.
Flour, yeast, olive oil, salt water.

Mix, knead, rest, knead, roll, rest, toppings, cook on a v high heat.

What barkm said.

Employment is a 2 way thing – You should be going in asking why you should commit a large part of your life to this organisation.
If they put you in a position where you feel you have to tell them, then maybe you should explain it. If they think it’s going to be relevant it’s not a place you’d want to work anyway.

If you stay where you are you are reasonably sure you won’t be happy.
If you take redundancy you are far more likely to find something you enjoy. There’s every chance it might take you a while, but with enough redundancy there would hopefully not be a rush.

Not an easy decision – good luck.

Our new Border, Ted, has a raw diet as recommended by the breeder.

We use Nature’s Menu minced chicken, comes frozen either direct or from Pets at Home. We mix in some frozen mixed veg as well.

For us the benefits are that the food doesn’t smell and he loves it.
We prepare it a day or 2 in advance – weigh out veg and meat into a tupperware (other makes are available) container (we do 2 at a time) then leave it in the fridge to slowly defrost. Just before we give it to him we sprinkle on a little bit of puppy kibble, which will stop when he’s grown.

We give him half in the morning and half in the evening.

To me it feels right – dogs evolved by eating raw food so it seems the best thing to give them. You also know exactly what you’re feeding them, The breeder swears by it and so far so good.

He has seen a squirrel – I saw it first and was ready but I made out that a tiny piece of cheese and running after a ball was way more interesting.

I’m aware that it may not last …

@carbonfiend

This forum needs a like button – they look very similar.

We thought Ted was untrainable as he kept ignoring us to run after other dogs to play with. We tried a few things before finding that he loves a ball and cheese so these are only ever available on walks where he is off the lead.

To start with we kept him on a very long (20m) lead and whenever he started to run away we called him back. When he came back he got a bit of cheese and a play with the ball. It didn’t take long for him to work out that coming back when we call meant he got them.
While it’s not 100% at the moment when off the lead (he’s only 16 weeks) we can stop him almost all the time. The secret is he never ever gets them at any other time.

Time will tell if it works reliably but the breeder we got him from did this and her dogs will not run off / chase when off the lead.

Taking this opportunity to post another photo of Ted :-)

He is proving to be remarkably easy to train and he will stay close to us if we want while out walking off the lead as we’ve been on top of training and consistent.

So I’d say terriers can be trained to not chase rabbits etc, indeed Borders were bred to run with the horses and hounds and to flush out foxes not go chasing things. Your description fits them well as it’s what we were after when we spent ages choosing the breed.

Anyway – here is Ted again

Update on my Pedalcover quote request…

I had a conversation with Darren last night to discuss my needs and the options he can do.

The quote he sent through later is almost £200 less than the M&S one with far better cover for the bikes. Partly done by whopping up the voluntary excess on the main policy and bundling in an excess policy to cover any excess needed.

So I get all my bikes covered (plus a new road bike if I got one – ahem) at home plus up to £9k worth away from home with no excess should anything happen.

To top it all he seems like a really nice bloke – compared to the usual call centre people (who also usually seem nice to be fair)

Once I have a read through the detail I expect I’ll be going via him. He is getting quite a bit of business via this forum.

Depends what you mean by classy and cool.

I tend to frequent …
The Fat Pug
The Cricketers

There are loads in the town centre but not been in any at night for ages

My M&S renewal came in at £560 so have stopped the renewal and am getting a pedalcover quote.

I might have continued had the cycle limit not been capped at £2k and they hadn’t upped it by 10% from last year.

With a new £3.5k road bike on the horizon and 2 MTB’s in that region separate cover or self insurance plus a few hundred quid on locks and chains may be another option.

if you don’t like it, you don’t have to buy the house…

Is what we did with a house when we were looking a few years ago.

We were offered a few indemnities for various things (can’t find the planning permission for a garage conversion) and along with the blokes attitude to some odd things (like wanting 2k for his bespoke italian gas fire) we walked away.

Best thing we did I think

I tend to go to mid Wales at least once a year with mates and we spend a day at CyB and day at Nant. Both are great IMO and I’d happily spend a day at either.
If you’ve never ridden CyB I’d go there then you can find out for yourself.

Between us there are 26, 27.5 and 29ers FS and HT.
No-one has died yet. Everyone has enjoyed it (apart from one bloke on a Halfords 40lb special who got round the Beast on it – just)

Fascinating link to UKDA with all the banned athletes.

Seems to me that rugby, union but league more so have a problem.

Can’t see it working in general in the UK.

If it costs more money most companies/government bodies won’t entertain it, even if people are more productive/efficient.

Many companies I’ve worked for think working really long hours is a good thing (despite it being counter-productive)
In general we are so far behind Scandinavian countries in how we treat employees and how forward thinking we are.

Personally I think it’s a good thing as I know being properly productive for more than 6 hours is difficult. I think people who appreciate this are in a real minority but the world is full of stupid people who ignore evidence.
</mini rant>

How on earth wasn’t that carnage, at some point.
Total respect to the drivers for doing that for 3 hrs

We got a cheaper Pure one.

Quite basic with non of the newer fancy features and it’s perfectly fine. Well made and just a radio.

I recently rode the Grand Union canal to London from home (Warwick) and bought an BBB EasyFit bell to help alert people to our presence.

It was rubbish.

We came across loads of people as you’d expect and I reckon it really worked about twice to the point that I gave up. The Hope hubs I have worked far more reliably.

On a related note I have a BBB EasyFit bell for sale. Only used on one ride and not for that long.

I did some work for a leasing company a year or so ago.

Additional charges at the end of the lease are a big cause for disagreements.
Senior chap I was working with said he always factors in the cost of a fill valet and chips away type visit to the cost.
Makes it much easier and costs about £150 – way cheaper than what you’ll be charged if you hand it back.

I wear one when I ride on my own.

It answers the question of what would happen if I ended up unconscious while I was out. Although I’ve never needed it, many other people have and it was probably a police request for identifying someone that prompted me to get one.

+1 David Sedaris.

I also listen to a lot of podcasts The Comedians comedian and Richard Herrings being current favourites – more than enough to keep you going.

I would take every opportunity to wind him up.

Indeed I’d go out of my way to wind him up on a regular basis.

I’m sure as a collective we could come up with some inventive ways.

Well if we are widening the scope of the OP’s request by suggesting trails within driving distance….

Nant-yr-Arian is my favourite welsh trail centre. Well worth the drive there and back if you get a couple or more laps of Summit in.

Bump because I got an email saying it’s tomorrow

I’d do Tarw Du as an afternoon blast.

For full days I’d do
– The Beast then see how you feel about more
– session some of the red/blue sections with time on the skills area
– MBR twice plus Tarw Du

Depends on how fit you are. MBR is worth riding more than once.

I’d ask myself if there is a chance I’d regret not changing jobs in the future.
or
What would it take to get you to move.

If you can handle a 10% pay cut and you can convince the wife that a happy husband is better than a richer, unhappy one then changing is probably the way to go.

All coming from a person who wants to do the same but can’t pull the trigger to actually do it…

We have friends who did this 7 years ago when the kids were 5 and 7 and we go and visit them every year or so and have the same discussion about moving out there.

Our daughter is 15 and this years annual chat about us moving out there go more serious, to the point of doing research to but somewhere in the next year or so. The plan would be to rent it out for a while with a view to moving there when daughter has left home.

They live in the Midi-Pyrenees and we would probably move there as the weather is less UK like and properties are relatively cheap. There are cheap flights to many airports that are up to a 3 hr drive.

Mortgage requirements are a lot stricter (IMO a good thing) and you need to understand that it’s a different way of life. There are quite a lot of brits living over there and lots of people who can help with such a move as the buying process is different.

Our cunning plan would be (if we get around to it) is to get a bit of a wreck and get our friends involved in the doing up over a 2 yr period (the wife does this for a living) gives us more scope to buy somewhere, cheaper to get what we want and might not lose us any money if we decide to sell.

Things we’ve worked out
– Don’t do it as an investment/ to make money unless you really know what you’re doing.
– Learn french
– life is too short to not have a go (this bit we’re working on)

Seems like a reasonable policy to me.

Folding bikes don’t take up much space, normal sized bike bags/boxes do.
They have a limited amount of space and while a driver may take your bike if he has space etc, they have to have a policy that they can apply and gives them half a chance of getting all the people and their stuff where they are going.

Mrs Rambo is after one and I’ve just ordered her a Fitbit after she talked to friends who own them.

I can report back after the weekend on how she likes it.

I can recommend trawsfynyddholidayvillage

Stayed there twice in 2 cabins each time with a group of us, ride to and from CyB on the Saturday then drive to Nant on the Sunday. The ride there is fun, the ride back less so.
The pub is close by and serves decent food and beer.

We have also stayed at Llys Ednowain hostel a bit further N. Excellent hostel

Have also stayed at Ivy house hotel in Dolgellau – average I’d say for a hotel but is priced accordingly (or was)

Preferred option is the log cabins – take stuff for breakfast. They are closed during Nov though which is a shame.

I can now finally contribute to these topics…

Our Border Terrier, Ted. 10 weeks old

I bought a Sony DSC RX100-II a while back to take with us to the states on holiday and the SLR plus lenses was too much to cart about.

It’s excellent – check the reviews. I almost prefer it to my SLR these days and take it with me most places.

They’ve released 2 models since that have each improved on the Mk II so there will be one around for whatever budget you have

Consultant IT architect here.

Used to not enjoy it but now I’m with a small company it’s tolerable as there are no internal company politics.

Pays too much and isn’t that bad to justify jumping to do something more worthwhile and interesting. Ideally I’d get made redundant and forced to try something else for a year.

I’m equally the other way round, I choose a bike depending on where I’m riding, what tires I think I may want, occasionally one I’ve not ridden in a while.

Then I ride whatever is in front of me at a speed that I feel happy with.

I tend to not ride proper modern DH stuff at all.

Done. Top bloke.

Highlights my lame excuses….

We also have an offset as it does all of the above.

Allows us to have a rainy day fund if everything goes wrong, and pay off the mortgage at the same time.
We transferred all our cash ISA’s to a savings acct that offsets, both our current accounts offset as well – saved us £1850 in interest last year.

2 years ago we went to San Fran on holiday and took a bit of a road trip on the way to Yosemite.

We came across the Winchester Mystery house.

Welcome to the Winchester Mystery House®

Amazing place, made even better by Stephen, our guide.
Well worth a visit if you’re in that part of the world.

Semi serious answer.
Bound to be more than this

The shorter the time frame the higher the risk you need to take, so …

Very short term
– Red or Black

Near medium term
– one or two low priced stocks – hope for price rise

Medium term
– one or two individual blue chip stocks, re-invest dividends

Long term
– some sort of stock market tracker

Very long term
– any fixed rate, low risk investment that returns higher than the rate of inflation – Gilts probably. Keep re-investing.
– buy property

Big risk that is unlikely to double the money
– buy premium bonds. You only risk the rate of inflation and it may never happen
– buy lottery tickets. you risk losing the lot and it’s unlikely to happen

Assos here and just bought another tub so I must like it.

I had an original 600 Bandit as my first bike.

Passed my test on a 125, waited 6 months then bought it brand new.

Fast is a relative term and it was fast as a first bike but for me that meant respect and the ability to get out of trouble if needed. Handles well and was reliable. I liked it so much I upgraded to the 1250 version which is a bit of a beast – a tame beast.

The only issue I ever had was carb icing when I commuted on it one winter. A scary experience until I found out what carb icing was.

As a returning biker I’d say it would be a very good choice