Goth as a musical genre was much better before the Sisters hit it big with Floodland and every single band with few exceptions copied them

Do you mean the very late ’80 early 90’s ‘Goff’ bands like Rosetta Stone? 8-)

Always been a big fan of the Sisters … but do concede that they can be a bit Marmite (with cheese) but I always like them for that!

Checkout Julia’s (& Vicki Pepperdine’s) podcast

https://podtail.com/en/podcast/dear-joan-and-jericha-julia-davis-and-vicki-pepper/

#Warning it isn’t for the easily offended!!

I’ve met Julia a few times – she really is very lovely and I still find it hard to believe that she comes up with such depraved filth ! :-)

There are loads of small and medium venues and plenty of bands who tour them. All depends if you want to see new stuff (remember, like you used to)

Haha … true to a certain extent I guess, but the industry has certainly changed.

I do try and get to see new bands as well though – not just the old timers! :-)

Recent gigs in the past couple of weeks:

Slaves – Leeds

Killing Joke – Leeds (sadly missed Drenge  in Sheffield as I already had tickets for KJ)

Polica – Leeds

There’s probably more smallish bars and pubs with ‘live’ music than there was 20+ years ago, but an increasing number of small and medium sized venues have closed down (35% in the past ten years apparently):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/42621944/why-music-venue-closures-make-all-of-our-lives-poorer

&

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/feb/16/uks-first-live-music-census-finds-small-venues-struggling

Leeds Brudenell SC is definitely bucking the trend and doing something right – and whilst I live in Sheffield I do go and see quite a few gigs there.

It’s about economies of scale though isn’t it? Years ago, a band would play Nottingham, Sheffield, Manchester Liverpool & Leeds. Frequently they will now only play a couple of northern cities. At the moment Sheffield is often overlooked. Manchester will cover the North-West catchment area, Nottingham the Midlands and Leeds the wider North & West Yorkshire area.

I used to ‘follow’ a few bands on tour back in the ’80s (Sisters, Mission, Ghost Dance, Salvation, NMA etc) so would frequently see the same band a few times the same week in various venues in the Midlands and the North (well everything from Leicester Princess.Charlotte to Newcastle Riverside)

Would probably require lots of travel to do that these days as bands don’t tour like they used to … and there just aren’t the same amount of small & medium venues any more.

I think the last time I saw the same artiste ‘on the bounce’ was PJ Harvey a few years ago – one night at Leeds Uni and then the next night at Nottingham Rock City.

Saw Slaves in Leeds on Monday night … really enjoyed them!

Physio believes I have patella tendinopathy; anyone had to deal with this before?

Yep – had this a few years ago. I’d ramped up the training in readiness for a big winter snowboarding trip to Canada with lots of running and lots of singlespeed compounded with an MCL tear a few years previous meant that I was getting burning pain in the patella when riding crud and chop

Saw a physio in Canada who gave me loads of routines & exercises to help improve the patella tendon tracking through the groove and build up strength including loads of foam roller work.

Stick with the physio and I’m sure you will be fine.

Still supporting my M62 line

The Kingdom of Northumbria used to extend down to Sheffield – Meersbrook to be precise, so I always tend to think that anything South of Heeley is ‘The Midlands’

Bits of North West Sheffield used to be part of West Riding, so they must be part of the North surly … and lots of what is now Southern Sheffield used to be part of Derbyshire – so definitely Midlands …

Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield are all pretty close lattitude-wise so since Manchester & Liverpool are defined as the ‘North-West’ then Sheffield must also be in ‘The North’ … well the Northern part of it anyway! :-)

Stuart Maconie once suggested that the ‘North’ began at Crewe – I reckon there is some mileage in this.

Quite like the idea of the M62 though! and according to my friends up in Newcastle etc, we are all southerners except them!

Dry eyes seem to be a common phenomenon with many people these days (with or without contact lenses) – apparently staring at a screen for long periods means you blink less, so your eyes dry out …

My dry eyes were exacerbated by the use of claritin for hayfever … I’ve since stopped taking claritin and my optician recommended Omega 3 & 6 supplements along with a warm eye patch/bag followed by massaging under the eyes in order to encourage the release of oils that lubricate the eye. This has helped greatly.

Definitely worth seeing a good optician/contact lens specialist.

I also have very sensitive eyes – the slightest irritant these days can make then red and swollen…

I use ‘Acuvue’ Moist Multifocal daily lenses for stuff like mountain biking where I might get dirt/grit/pollen etc in them.

I also use Acuvue OASYS (for presbyopia) as a multiday soft contact lens and have even slept in a pair for upto 5 days on a Snowboard trip to Greenland.* My spares survived really low temps and I just changed them every 5 days to minimise having to touch my eye, given the lack of washing facilities etc.

I ended up trialling numerous different lenses and solution and quite a few just irritated my eyes, however the acuvue moist dailies have been great – and the ability to have two prescriptions (i.e. so I can still read a map etc without having to carry reading glasses) as I get older has been really useful.

*How do you know when someone has been on a Snowboard trip to Greenland – don’t worry they will tell you! :-)

Heard a Marshall bluetooth portable speaker being demo’d when I was hanging around Heathrow departures early this year – sounded really good but was worried it might just be a bit of fancy ‘branding’ …

But bought the missus the Marshall ‘Kilburn’ portable one for her birthday … the sound is just immense!! it’s quite heavy, but the ‘cabinet’ is solidly made so no rattle or vibrations etc. One of those rare occasions [these days] when you aren’t disappointed with a purchase … even if it isn’t for you! :-)

1970’s Altendorf

#SmallClaimsCourt – I had the pleasure of snowboarding with one of the descendants of Wilhelm Altendorf (Inventor of the sliding table saw and founder of the Altendorf Company)

Top Fella! :-)

Broadfield is good, So is The York at Broomhill. In fact they are all owned by the same guy (Kane) and he also owns The Forum, The Common Room, The Olde House/Devonshire. Riverside is owned by True North Brew Co I think.

Itchy Pig at Broomhill as PeterPoddy mentioned is good (just round the corner from The York.

Also worth checking out if you are ‘West Side’ is The Blake and The Blind Monkey (use to be the Firwood Cottage)

Actually the Dev Cat is owned by Abbeydale Brewery

Interesting … I didn’t know that – I stand corrected.

I know Kelham Island Brewery took over the Sportsman (old rock pub) on Cambridge Street (and renamed it ‘Tap and Tankard’) but it didn’t seem to last very long.

And I’ve not seen a huge number of cocktials in there

Was in there not long after the remodel (when they moved the bar from the back to the middle).

Took 20 minutes to get served as the staff were too busy making cocktails, so we didn’t stay for more than one pint and moved off to The Washington … which although it has waxed and waned a bit over the years is still a great pub and continues serving well into the early hours.

then pubs and clubs to visit preferably free to get in!

To be honest, few clubs are free and even fewer like the idea of large groups of 50 year blokes …

If you are looking at doing the Ale train during the day, then you probably want to be fairly central, so Kelham Island probably does tick the boxes in terms of having some of eating and drinking places – a number of pubs have late licences however it’s not like the centre of town/West St).

But, If you are looking for somewhere a bit more lively for ‘young’ 50 year olds then Division Street/Devonshire Green *might* appeal (it’s less Student-y than the parallel West Street) and has the Forum/Olde House (now called the Devonshire) ‘Brew Dog’, Devonshire Cat (owned by same company as ‘Fat Cat’ @ kelham Island but for younger, livelier, busier crowd – can take ages to get served as the staff all seem to making fancy cocktails …). Potentially same issue with big groups of 50 yr old men – (door staff tend to be suspicious). Lower end of Division Street towards Barkers Pool has large chain establishments like Wetherspoons & Turtle Bay with older demographic – like West Street it gets younger as you move up the road – until it reaches a point where it suddenly gets older again. At the top of West Street/Division Street are the likes of the Red Deer (just off West Street) and The Bath.

It all kindof depends on what vibe you are looking for – The Green Room has Music/DJs but can be cramped or upstairs at the Forum (The Common Room) has pool tables if that’s your thing …

Personally as a ‘young’ 50 year old myself, I try and avoid being in town on a weekend – but that’s just me! :-)

Jodie Comer was great as ‘Linda’ in ‘Bovril Pam’ as well!

Really enjoyed Killing Eve – Phoebe B-W certainly seems to going from strength to strength with her writing at the moment!

I’m plotting to better my 30 days from last season – it will all be in Fernie BC as its the only place we’ve been to in the past 10 seasons and we’ve still not skied it out

Fernie is great isn’t it? I spent 6 weeks there last winter and had a real blast!

Much of it’s wilderness, but can you go out into it?

Certainly in British Columbia, over 90% is ‘Crown Land’ and can therefore be considered ‘Public’ with associated rights of access and use (with various restrictions applied – mainly about commercial use).

This is probably why B.C. has such a progressive mountain bike culture.

Whilst  they can’t avoid all trail user conflicts (there have been a number of issues recently in the [relatively] more densely populated areas around Vancouver), the Canadians seem to frequently implement ‘Tail Alliance’ Groups so that Mountain Bikers/Hikers/Snowshoers/Noridic Skiers/Fat Bikers etc are all represented.

I bought a grease gun tube ff XHP 222 about 6 years ago – and just decant some into a smaller grease gun as and when required.

From memory it’s what Hope use in their hubs … so naturally it’s also what I use [where appropiate!]

I’ve got a couple of the Dakine ones – I really like them: they are technical enough without being overly polypropylene (some of them are 100% cotton) but still dry fairly easily …

… kindof ‘plaid-casual’ if you will! :-)

@nedrapier – thanks for that – greatly apreciated! :-)

I read online the further forward the cleat the more pressure it puts on the Achilles, which makes sense

Yep – I’ve read this too as I suffer from occasional bouts of Achilles Tendonitis.

Whilst moving the cleats further back (towards the balls of my feet/arches if that makes sense) probably didn’t cure it, I do think it helped by not agravating it further.

My physio recommended a progam of increasing number of heel raises to strengthen surrounding tissue etc.

Good luck. Hopefully your physio can get you sorted before your trip.

@gingerbllr

Interesting – thanks for that! :-)

All fun and games until some old guy wears shorts shorter than his balls hang down.

Couldn’t help but think of Alan Partridge and the long suffering Lynn’s comment:

Lynn: You’ve… You’ve popped out again!

Alan: That wasn’t deliberate, I promise you. It’s not a cry for help. I’ve had these shorts since 1982. They did have an underpant lining, but it’s perished. They’ve taken a bit of a pounding over the years

Japan remains that great white whale I’m desperate to tick off. Maybe this year…!

Japan has been on my list for years as well, but I’m hearing numerous reports about how busy the resorts and backcountry trees etc have become in recent years. Seems like a long way to go for a busy resort … when I can go a similar distance West to the likes of Bristish Columbia and have completely empty runs mid-week.

Still fascinated and keen to see and experience the culture of Japan though!

In terms of trips for next year, I think I will struggle to beat this years grand total of 50+ days on the snow, however I’ve got Lofoten Norway, the Pyrenees and Italy all pencilled in!

This recent hot weather has left me craving zub-zero temps … as the French [might] say ‘long live the difference!’ :-)

Just built 4 wheels using Rock ‘n ‘ Roll Nipple Cream

Previously I’ve just dipped the spoke threads in whatever oil I’ve got to hand but thought I’d try the ‘Nipple Cream’

To be honest, it was name of the product that swung it for me (and the fact that I was placing an order for a job lot of other RnR products). Nice and slippery without being overly greasy!

Also give the rim eyelet a wee wipe with oil/nipple cream using a [non-single-use-plastic] cotton bud for the nipple/rim interface!

Have a look at ‘Lake District Climbs & Scarmbles’ from v-publishing:

https://www.v-publishing.co.uk/books/categories/climbing/lake-district-climbs-and-scrambles.html

If you’re doing Grade 2 or 3 scrambling it might be worth taking a rope and small rack

the BMC site has some useful stuff on Moving Together for speed etc so that your scarmbles don’t end up being multi-pitch routes …

https://www.thebmc.co.uk/hill-skills-how-to-protect-scrambles

So it’s not all doom and gloom.

^^ Absolutely this!

Maintaining a postive mental attitude is key I think – as is ensuring that you still enjoy yourself and have fun – life is too short and pretty much none of us know how much time we have remaining!

it’s amazing how quickly he went downhill when he stopped taking regular exercise

To quote the Dogtown skater/surfer Jay Adams:

“You didn’t quit skateboarding because you got old, you got old because you quit skateboarding”

If necessary substitute ‘skateboarding’ with your chosen hobby/pursuit

Use it or lose it … I’m now 50 but cycling & snowboarding more than ever.

I’ve found my reaction times aren’t quite as sharp and I can’t be as reckless when it comes to jumps and drops etc anymore as injury recovery takes longer but I think I’m having more fun than ever! :-)

Ice and nsaids if you can take them

I would avoid NSAIDs if possible – there are questions around their efficacy (and their side effects!) and some increasing evidence that NSAIDs can slow down the healing process – in particular with bones fractures.

Whilst a number of studies conclude that more research is required (twas ever thus!), personally, I would err on the side of caution with the use of of NSAIDs.

Much of Norway will still be covered in snow and ice during Feb/Spring Half-term. Northern Norway will still only have very short days – the ski touring season doesn’t really get going until March/April.

I’ve only spent limited time in Oslo – it seemed like a really cool city but I’m not sure there is much for 6 and 4 year olds though.

Absolutely stunning landscapes and tourism is trying to shake off the reputation of Norway being eye-wateringly expensive. However, unless you do winter sport type outdoor activities or are hoping to see the Northern Lights I would perhaps suggest going later in the year with the kids.

There’s a big church you can go on the roof off – near the famous square whose name I’ve forgotten

‘ plaza de la virgen’ is possibly the famous square you mean – great for people watching, it’s like a lung that breathes and changes as the day progresses. The church tower is ‘El Miguelete’ – which gives great views over the city.

For somewhere to eat in a great setting, try ‘Restaurante la pizca de sal’  (translates as ‘pinch of salt) near ‘Torres de Quart’

Stock of Chromag stuff has totally dried up since CRC/Hotlines took over distribution from Shorelines

Agreed – Shorelines was my ‘goto’ dealer for all things Chromag … great to deal with!

Probably easier to get someone going to Whistler on holiday to pick you one up rather than trying/hoping to get one from CRC …

I think that’s something to do with GPS device

I thought it was the way that Strava interpreted the FIT file from Suunto – i.e, data looks ok in Movesount but then completely different and sometimes unrealistic when automatically transfered to Strava.

There’s been various discussion on Strava about this with people expressing their frustrations.

From my own experience I’ve found Suunto & Movescount to be pretty accurate in terms of GPS location, measured distance and altitude (with reference values etc).

Strava on the other hand is seemingly about as accurate as measuring distance on a map with a piece of uncooked spagetti ….

edit – for example:

https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115000091670–Too-fast-pace-and-distance-data-discrepancies

I went over on my ankle quite badly on New Years Eve. heard a loud crack and ended up with a my ankle very swollen and I couldn’t put any weight on it all. Bruising turned the bottom of my foot and toes black. I strappped it up following the instructions in my Wilderness First Aid book with zinc oxide tape and kept it elevated for 48 hours then booked in with my Sports Physio.

Turned out I’d badly damged my Anterior talofibular ligament and a few others. Had intensive physio for the next 3 weeks before I went snowboarding to Canada. Once I’d got my snowboard boot on I was ok. Just had to go east on drops and landings for the first few weeks.

Go see a good sports physio …

more south than west

I think Crosspool is pretty much the definition of ‘West Sheffield’ – being almost directly West of the City Centre.

A word of warning though – chunks of West Sheffield are seemingly suffering from a crime wave in terms of Burglary and Vehicle crime. (have a look at ‘Sheffield West NHP’ Facebook page for more info).

Also, Sheffield is also experiencing a relatively recent sharp rise in Violent Crime – in particular knife crime. I know Nottingham has a history of violent crime, but this is a fairly recent phenomenon in Sheffield which has historically often been lower than other major UK cities.

If you are looking at ‘nice’ areas between West Sheffield and the Peak District then the obvious choices are Fulwood, Ranmoor, Greystones and Endcliffe. Right on the Westerly Edge of Sheffield and closest to the border with Derbyshire is Lodge Moor. After that there is little housing apart from the odd farm etc until you get to Grindleford/Hathersage.

Really good to see Killian back from surgery and injuries!

An very impressive result indeed!

Stopped using Claritin earlier this year as the side effects of dry eyes was making contact lens use very painful and causing very dry/sore eyes.

Trying to manage hayfever symptoms with saline nasal spray (Sterimar) and local honey. Not ideal but certainly better than the side effects caused by the over the counter drugs.

wouldn’t see me on one of those silly trays on snow!

Careful sweetie! ;-)

Like many others I’m regular skate/surf/snowboard so left foot forward – same on the bike when heading for a jump or drop-off etc!

I can track-stand forever when left foot forward … can barely do 30 sec right foot forward, but I’m working on it!

according to my physio the muscles in my left leg are more developed but this might be due to injury in the right

Mainly right handed, but often use the left for ‘variety’ …

Check to see if you are using ‘StorAHCI.sys’

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/3083595/task-manager-might-show-100-disk-utilization-on-windows-10-devices-wit

This has solved the issue on a couple of laptops for me

edit (both laptops were also Dell)

Whitbreads – who used to be brewers and purveyors of ales and own pubs etc got out of the pub industry and into the Coffee industry with ‘Costa Coffee’.

Although pressure is on Whitbreads from a couple of hedge funds to sell off Costa …

So since the 1990s alcohol induced depression has possibly given way to caffeine induced anxiety …

Still at least you can get decent coffee these days (not including Costa/Starbucks etc) … in the ’80s a cup of coffee was a spoon full of nescafe granules in a polystyrene cup topped up with scolding hot water … ;-)

It’s my 50th this year as well.

Spent 6 weeks snowboarding in Canada, 1 week snowboarding in Lofoten Norway and 1 week snowboarding in the Alps. 50 days on the snow for 50 years on ‘this mortal coil’! :-)

If you can’t spoil yourself rotten when you are fifty then when can you? You’ve only made it this far by either medical intervention or the advances in sciences etc. From now on every day really is a bonus! :-)

However, I’d rather scoop my eyes out with the back of soup spoon than have some ‘function’ in the backroom of a pub, but each to their own.

Your birthday … your call!