“Your Honour, it was internet bravado only, not a genuine confession”

See if any of your riding mates/ forumers near by might have a 40/50/60/70mm stem you can borrow to try.
Previously i liked short stems and high bars.

A Volvo on its roof, in a field (happened the night before, no-one was in it when I rode past)

A gentleman being orally pleasured by his lady friend, on a fairly central part of a frequently used walking/ cycling route.

Shotgun cartridges (spent) (odd because it was on a residential road in Basildon)

People dressed up as knights having a sword fight

Metro/ subway tiling.

Awful.

I have 200mm, but haven’t finished the build to use it in anger yet.

Reason for super length is that I am 198cm tall and have historically run masses of seat post (due to frames being too small)
(https://www.instagram.com/p/Blk–7EnLmk/ this is a pic of my XXL tourer bike, with a fair amount of seat post out the top of the 64cm frame)

edit: dropper post is going in a mountain bike, not the road going bike, it was only for illustration of how much seat pin I need.

from a PAYE perspective Tax, NI and Student loan are all taken from the same gross pay figure (less the free pay elements for each deduction

Increased my investment from “minor” to “fairly significant” and have won sod all this month.
I.Am.Disappoint.

28 days until the next chance

I was tipped off about Pro-Trek F30 being cheap on Sport Pursuit.
£180, down from £450 (rrp, but I’m sure they were selling for about £350 when i was looking last year)
It will be my dog walking watch.

i have a few procook X30s (paring, utility, santoku 5″+7″, bread and cleaver)
all seem good, got a free Nihon Nakiri with it too, which was nice

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJlhxnOnTFk/

Did some fettling over Christmas break.
Needs gear cable outer and brake mount adaptors, thought I had +20pm-pm but they are all IS-PM, then should be good to go.

Its really big, I had to drop the seat post into the frame more, which surprised me.

(Mullet setup, 29er in the forks, 27.5 hanging out back)

alpin
Full Member
💎♾️

Diamonds are Forever

⛰️⛰️👀👀

I thought you’d see it there first!

Frame delivered at 825 this morning, quite impressed with Parcels2Go on this occasion.

In the box was the frame, some decals, a headset (I wasn’t expecting), 3 mech hangers (handy to have spares), cable clip/tidys and rear axle.
Plus more stickers and a Marino brand t shirt.

Not really had a chance to do much other than unboxing before starting work, but post Christmas build is on.
(I really need to order a dropper post)

Hope everyone else’s turns up soon

Just got my tracking number, estimated delivery 29 Dec…

Although that is the next working day after the 24th, so not really an issue.

Once its cooked, wrap in foil and leave it out of the way whilst you cook everything else.

It will stay hot for hours (IME with chickens, anyway)
The resting will allow the meat to relax and not be chewy.

I also received the same email in the early hours of the morning.

Hopefully tomorrow, then I can get building next week (although I do not have a seat post yet, I think I might have one that fits in the garage)

I received the following at 1330 on Monday

Good afternoon,
We had confirmation yesterday that the frames were in London, awaiting forward travel to Newcastle for us to clear customs and collect.
I instructed our customs agent this morning, they have visibility of the batch and are now in the process of clearing the batch ASAP – they advised that the transport out of London has been made less frequent due to their Tier 4 status so the frames weren’t with them at 9am this morning, so clearance and release wasn’t possible for today.
They have advised that I will be able to collect them tomorrow (Tuesday 22nd)
Our courier has confirmed if I schedule shipments before midnight tonight, they will be collected 23rd and delivered 24th.

Please can you outline the delivery address for your frame asap so I can book the forward shipping.

Best regards
Luke

We shall see, potentially a Christmas for me though!

See you on the other side (hopefully)

About 2 years ago i ended up wot h2 cheques to pay in, mad e the trip into town to find out my local RBS had shut 6 months prior.
NatWest take them though (same group) so not a complete wasted trip.

I could do with changing banks though, only got an RBS account because I worked for them (I left probably 20 years ago)

If no one seems to be able to agree that you are married, what is stopping you getting married here?
It may be “illegal” but to what extent? is it a recordable offence? would you go to gaol?

I got married in Florida, USA and (AFAIK) no one in the UK knows we are married (official like, our pals and family know)
I’m always suggesting we get married in the UK (as low key as possible) and back up our US wedding, but we don’t really care.

I (foolishly?) paid the invoice after being assured I will have it before Christmas.

Partegas Serie D No.4

A pair of slippers and a dildo.
If she doesn’t like the slippers she can go f herself!

But actually a Rubik’s cube. Its great and engages the brain.

Cafelat Robot
or
ROK Presso

get an espresso grinder too, micro adjustment make a big difference.

i always go bourbon with ice / malts at room.

I like Woodford or Makers neat/ room temp, but Buffalo Trace i like a big ice cube in there.

Malts i like in a glass, in my hand, warmed so slightly higher than room temp

Yes!

It reminded me of the arcade cabinet art for Space Invaders

Loads of reasons for PAYE staff to need to do a self assessment, If you earn over £100,000, claim child support, have untaxed income (rental property [including airbnb], investments, dividends, overseas income)
Have a go on https://www.gov.uk/check-if-you-need-tax­-return if you are concerned you may need to/ think you shouldn’t complete a SA

Essex/ East London here – not part of my vernacular.

Chip off might be our local equivalent
“I’m chipping off to the pub”
“See you later, I’m chipping off home now”

banana and nutella

Got my invoice last night for the remaining balance on my frame.
Ordered early August, was told by Marino UK “6 weeks turn around, but they are shipping in 4 weeks, so will try to get my frame done for that”
I foolishly got optimistic.

Reckon it will be 20 weeks by the time I get it.
Hoping to have it before Christmas, so I can utilise my time off to build the bloody thing

£0 for me, but January (to coincide with the drop in “returns”) i have increased my investment by 1840%…

i recently signed up for PS Now, which is a “netflix” of games on the PSN.

Have a peep at the games list here, Borderlands Collection is 2 and pre-sequel IIRC.
Also has Doom (2016) which is one of the best FPS games since OG Doom.

I think its about £35 on CDKeys for a years membership.

I’ve had a Melitta Therm for a few years, its great.
Timer is a wonderful thing, waking to freshly brewed coffee, stays hot for hours.

Moccamaster is a better looking machine, that has a lot of fans, but no timer function so ruled it out for me, cant be waiting at 7am

Toblerone is peak Toblerone.

Variants sit below on the hierarchy.

I have a JBL flip 4 and a JBL Charge 3.
Bit bass heavy, plenty loud if you want it, they link together (wirelessly) for making noise over a larger area (you can link up to 100, i think)
Does make a jaunty little tune on start up though.

The Charge has a USB port so you can charge something whilst playing (hence the name)

Makers Mark, Makers 46, Woodford Reserve are all good bourbons for drinking neat.
I prefer Makers to Woodford, but always have a bottle of each in stock.

A leftfield suggestion is Patron Tequila, the Patron Café is a tequila-based coffee liqueur and is wonderful for end of the night tipple

I grabbed a bottle of Bowmore 12 for £25 in the Tesco promo, which is pretty cheap.

Also I have been stocking up from the Drop Store . com, they have some decent promotions and a wide variety of spirits. Some stuff I’ve had over lockdown v1:
Pogues Irish whiskey is surprisingly good for a gimicky brand, came with a bottle of Buffalo Trace bourbon for £30, so super bargain.
Crabbies 8yo single malt is terrible and best avoided
American Eagle 12yo bourbon, not any better than Buffalo Trace really, better off going for Makers or Woodford

Going off topic i got a 3 pack of rums (Rum Sixty Six) a white rum, a 6yo and a 12yo. The white is good for mixing with cokes or in cocktails, the 6 is great with ginger ale and the 12 is perfectly drinkable on its own.

I heard Waitrose is doing some decent deals ATM too, so might be worth checking that out if you have one near by.

My marathon gaming sessions are fuelled appropriately:
Biggest, cheapest pizza from any local place (with all the meats)
a few cans of ale
a bottle of scotch

BITD when I was less middle aged it would have been cigarettes, weed, Coca-Cola and a concerted effort to beat Resident Evil in 1 sitting

(current marathon sessions last about 3 hours before I flake, in my other example it would have been work until 5, drink and dance until 2am, game until I had to go to work again, hoping to grab an hours kip on the train, the joys of youth!)

unpopular opinion, but bacon doesn’t improve everyhting
I would go as far to say bacon improves nothing.

(caveat: not a vegetarian, just not a bacon fan)