thats a useful website Finishthat, cheers. its an orange projection when we are off this year so not to bad

We have been driving and camping around france for a few years now with our two kids (6 and 3) and did a couple of big drives to brittany and ille de rey in one go with lots of stops but its too much if the traffic is bad.  So last year when we went to lake annecy we drove 5 ish hours to Langres and camped so the kids and us could rest/walk/swim/ride bikes etc have a nice dinner and then get going again the next day for another 4 to 5 hours to annecy which was way better and more exciting for the kids as it became an adventure.

we are doing the same this year camping our way down to near grenoble then onto provence, i should add we always get the 6:30 tunnel so we are on the french motorways by 8 am french time.

entertainment provided by audio books seems to keep our two entertained.

Finishthat – how do you find out what the “black weekends” are?

i had a mk2 cav like chapakings up there as a first car, loved that thing as it was almost indestructable, 312,000 ish miles several youthfull crashes which left it full of filler and bumbers held on with duck tape! happy days of bombing around france biking and camping. Pushing it round wandsworth one way system after the cam belt snapped, fitted a new one and changed the oil next day and off it went again………..ahhhh happy days it had the most comfy seats and would run on once turned off like uncle bucks car and then back fire!

several years later i also had a mk4 astra that did 240,000 ish miles and was equally hard to kill. I am not massively bothered with the brand though, i do however have a disslike for mazda as the engine on our 6 blew up at 80k and mazda didn’t give a sh’t

Not tried the callibration trick, to be honest i never read the instructions 😀 but i think i will give it a go.

Other than the noise it does seem to work pretty well considering its washed all kinds of rocks/sticks/mud toys that the kids leave in their pockets and i forget to check for and it has a five year warranty (obviously its never washed any rocks :wink:)

result on the posh upgrade!

We have the same washing machine and it is very loud!! it was pretty quiet when we first got it but has got louder and louder and does its best to escape out of the kitchen!!

Ours is on a normal wooden floorboard floor though so does bounce around a bit, its still going strong though after nearly two years use by a family of messy herberts and has out lasted the previous two machines when i decided buying the cheapest one in the shop was becoming a false economy.

And it sings a cheery little song when its finished 😀

I’ve just had an experience this morning that has confirmed the ****ishness of one group of people who are generally regarded as utter ****s, but thrown another angle over the ****ishness of another group of people who are generally regarded as utter ****s.

I was on the M6 this morning, and there had been a crash shutting all 3 lanes. As everyone grinds to a halt the sat nav tells me that my estimated journey time for the 7 miles I have to travel is 2 hours.

Arse! Oh well. Nowt I can do about it. Travel news says the M6 is now shut. Nobody is going anywhere, so engine off and play my scrabble moves on my phone (rock and roll eh?)

Its a good mile and a half off the next junction, but it soon becomes apparent that a certain group of people think that they are now exempted from the rules of the road, and are now allowed to use the hard shoulder to drive this distance. Go on… hazard a guess who?

You’re probably ahead of me…. every single one of this now regular stream is driving a German manufactured rep-mobile. Every single one! Anyone who isn’t an utterly self-absorbed **** would probably work out for themselves that if the motorway is shut, then theres a good chance that ambulances and the traffic police are going to be needing the hard shoulder to get to the incident. But hey… if you’re more important than them?

But then another group of people, also generally regarded as ****s took exception to this, and did something about it. As I looked down the motorway a large number of white van men started pulling their front wheels over on to the hard shoulder just enough to prevent German rep-mobile man from getting past, thus stopping the flow of them, but then nudging their bonnets back out when the ambulances came through

Turns out Mr German rep-mobile man isn’t inclined to go through his usual swearing and gesticulating routine when he’s stationary, and the other party is two hairy arsed plumbers or welders in a Transit

Had a similar one to this coming back from wales on the M4, massive horrible accident had shut the motorway and the police were turning everyone round. Some numpty comes razzing up the hard shoulder and i thought i wish when people did that sort of stupid unthinking maneuver there would be a traffic cop waiting for them……on this occasion there was! the ones who were dealing with the massive crash and probably especially pissed off at some twit making their job harder. So whilst everyone else was either turned around of directed off the motorway said twits were sat in the back of a traffic police car :o)

cycling home from work stopped to let some pedestrians past and swung my leg over the saddle to dismount forgetting i had dropped my daughter at nursery in the morning and had the seat on the back, which meant a comedy sideways falling into the road! cue much sniggering from the pedestrians. Dented pride and broken sun glasses what a numpty 😳

we are off to Annecy this summer, two and five year old in tow. camping on the edge of the lake, lots to see and do, with some easy trails to hike and cycle on close by and not far from la cluzaz (not ridden there yet but looks good from what i have seen) for me to get a few runs in. And my son is very excited to pedal a pedalo around the lake :o)

Sui, just throw a tarp over the bridge on the kids playground thing and camp underneath with the toilet in the bottom of the tower and get on with it. We all know its you not Sue that doesn’t want to slum it ;O)

A few years ago now at the cymcarn dh tracks, last run of the day i think. Got off the uplift and pushed up to the start ramp and waited with my mate as we were hoping that nigel page and few young speedy racers would set off before us. But they were having a long chat so we set off with gusto and furious speed so as not to loose face in front of the world cup racers! it all goes wrong as we hit the first big jump at the top in full view of nigel page and friends. My mate gets the jump wrong but as i am about 2ft from his back wheel i watch with intent as he crash lands in front of me and i proceed to land on his bike and pile off into the bushes. We were both up in a flash and away down the track i’m sure there was a round of applause as we went :o)

Doris.. that does make me feel better!
I’ve just been asleep since 11 and I feel a bit better. I’ve not chundered since about 10 so hopefully that’s abated now. Still got the squits though and I had to quickly jump out of my makeshift bed when I had a fart plus we’ve all been there. I don’t feel like watching tv or music or anything, all input is annoying…so I’m just gonna sit here and gently moan…. ooooohhhhhhhh

looking on the brightside there was no post christmas dieting required in our house 🙂

fingers crossed you will be back to normal in a day or two

If it makes you feel any better, at christmas my two year daughter got it first followed by her five year old brother followed by father in law followed by mother in law followed by me followed by my parents and brother in law!! My wife managed to dodge it luckily :o)

All made worse by the fact that the in laws were staying with us in our small house with only one toilet! still boxing day evening was nice and crisp in the moonlit garden standing over a bucket.

good luck

9. cameraman – Dan

I have just swapped the original 140mm pikes (they have finally died) for a pair of fox 36 at 160mm !! i have let some air out though so they sag more as it is a bit wandery, but so far so good.

That’ll teach me to type and not send straight away! Good for continuing with the sale, but if they want to bring everything forward they should be paying for your early redemption of the mortgage or wait til the original date.

good luck with it, house selling/buying is such a pain in the arse

If I were your buyer and I’d invested time, money, dreams etc in the house you were about to sell me only to have you pull out at the last moment because, on a whim, you’ve ‘fell in love with it again’ and, on top of that, you can’t actually afford to do what needs doing to it anyway, I’d think you were a dick.

This!

we got to the exchange day on three houses when either buyers or sellers changed their minds at the last minute on a whim costing me thousands of wasted money and a whole lot of stress especially as we were living in a one bedroom flat with two small children.

Think how you would feel if this was the other way around especially if cash was tight.

Unless its an investor adding to their portfolio 🙂

we got one of these for our little boy when he was 2 ish for camping as the bottom zips off or on making it longer as he has grown, hes still in it now he is almost five and its toasty warm (way warmer than my crap old sleeping bag) I will be getting one for his little sister aswell for this summers camping trips

vango convertable

i wouldnt play with the kids unless they are older?

but try this

until dawn[/url]

i might be biased as i worked on it for blooming ages!!

I think you will find that the old presenters were all very good drivers, much more capable and skillful in a car than you or I

i’m not sure thats true, it is a TV show with all the tricks that come with it.

I loved the old clarkson/may/hammond topgear but things move on and i really liked that link over the page that the new guy rory did on the rolls royce so am intrigued to see what the new show brings. And am going to try and not judge it what has gone before.

Sui,

Firstly roger was right “dont follow dave as hes a muppet!” :o)

secondly have you tried guildford A and E? might not be such a long wait?

thirdly hope you aren’t to sore, i am getting flashbacks to the pain from falling/swallow diving of that bridge in verbier, morphine does wonders until its run out! So get yourself sorted!

Iain

We had a similar problem with thames water for our two bed flat, when i questioned them on it they said unless questioned you go on a rate linked to your postcode and the properties in the surrounding area. Which for us is a load of bloomin great mansions!!

To cut a long story short they sent out a man to assess the flat for getting a meter and he said dont get one as you can be put on a special tariff for smaller properties. He advised not to get the meter as we have two small kids and at the time it was cheaper to go on the cheaper tariff rather than the meter, because of the washing machine use, baths etc

we just got rid of our old faithfull mk4 golf hatchback because of another new arrival because the baby seat didnt fit behind the drivers seat without having to push it right forward into an uncomfortable postion and i’m only 5ft 10 at a push! And our eldest is still in his booster seat thing which causes the same problem. We looked at old passats and the like but ended up with a mk5 golf estate which has more legroom in the rear and a big boot so we now only need the roof box when we go camping with the extra clut that entails. And the car drives just like a normal golf and my wife is happier driving it around (she uses it the most in the week) as it isnt to big and unwieldy.

A while ago now, on the last day of another fine week in verbier with bike verbier, we had just ridden down a cracking trail at pace to avoid the incoming storm, the trail was technical and fast and in places a bit tricky, all successfully negotiated. Whilst riding along a flat path back to a small village Phil rides gently over a small bridge followed by a very good riding mate who makes a meal of the little bridge. Bravado over takes skill as i wheelie onto the planked bridge, my back wheel splits the planks and it is then i notice the big drop to the side where despite my flapping arms is where i am heading….i proceed to do a swallow dive into a small ravine onto alot of pointy rocks (about 4 metres drop) que alot of funny noises from me some white looking faces from my mates and a trip to the hospital and 6 months off the bike! still could have been worse the ledge i landed on led to an even bigger drop!

we love sarah and duck in our house, and as my mate is the art director on it we have some original artwork and doodles from the animators 8)

reading what you plan to do another option is after effects, as you can scan in drawings and manipulate them and edit and add audio and effects etc as you go along. A guy i have worked with in the past (Dave Penn) a motion graphics artist, did alot of stuff for harry potter games in after effects combining still images from the game with camera moves and other bits of animation. There is some of it in his old reel.

dave penn

the PAP thing looks good if you are comfortable having a go at drawn animation.

Iain (character animator)

ille de re, off the cost of la rochelle is great if you are into beaches, we went last summer with our little one. There is a wide variety of beaches for sandcastles rock pooling etc and the whole island is covered in cycle paths with bikes every where and its flat so your 5 year old will be able to trundle around happy as larry.

we camped here

camping

it doesn’t have pool which means its less crazy busy and besides from our pitch you could lob a stone over the hedge and it would plop into the sea.

got a secondhand rothan for my little boys second birthday, we let him try a few different ones out in halfords and evans before he was two but he was just a bit to small so we waited. But since his birthday its taken about two weeks for him to get the gist of it. Absolutely bombs along on tarmac which is a bit scary and he has had a few falls off it as he gets a bit excited. I need to teach him what the brake does i think as i have had a few paniced runs to stop him riding off steps or into the duck pond at the park!! Luckily he is obsessed with his bike and given the chance would take it to bed with him.

So basically wait a bit so as not to put him off if he isn’t big enough to use one but if they are tall enough go for it but expect that it might take a while for him to get used to it.

Does he have a bunch of riding mates? that can help, One of my riding buddies did a tour in afganistan with 2 para a few years ago and we (the riding group) did a similar thing for him. I stripped his old frame down and sent it off to argos for a re spray we got some decals made up (the cove logo on a union jack rather than the maple leaf) new drive train brake service etc etc

Back to the point if he has a group of riding friends can you ask them to help to get the bike sorted and the new parts fitted/ordered etc?

There might be something from these guys

toon boom

The animate pro software is pricey but they have some simplier kids stuff that might be of use? I have only had a play with the animate pro software and it was pretty easy and powerful to use (work gets in the way!) so the kids stuff should be good.

Iain

I streamlined my bike collection last year and got a bargain ex demo covert frame to replace both my old trusty 5 spot and bottle rocket. Transferred the bits off the turner.

And i love it, as a couple of people have said they are not light but do seem to ride “light” the bottle rocket was like this despite weighing 38lbs!! (the covert is no where near that though) can be a bit of a drag on long ups but i just keep on pedaling and get up eventually. Comes alive on the downs though to use a cliché its really “poppy” and great fun in the corners. After riding around on the horst link turner for nine years i think i prefer the single pivot linkage driven shock of the covert it seems to want to go forward more eagerly.

I didn’t test ride it before i got mine but knew i liked the feel of transitions, but definitely get a test ride.

For a bit of balance, me and my other half are getting married this summer, and as we already have a flat full of stuff and a small child and all the clobber that comes with that we sent out a card with the invite that basically said we weren’t having a wedding list and we didn’t need any gifts, but if people want to give us a gift then a contribution to our honeymoon would be much appreciated. We did this because in our experience a lot of people (our friends and family) are very generous and actually want to give something, so this way they can if they want to and if not, no bother just come and have a fun day out.

Are we mercenary? i don’t think so, we are getting married in some woods and everyone is camping to keep the costs down.

Iain

Not really a new dad anymore, our little one is 21 months, but agree with the lots of good advice above about cooking and cleaning and changing nappies etc

Adjustablewench makes a good suggestion about a bit of solitude, alone time for mum, to have a bath/sleep/natter to mates on the phone. I did alot of walks with the pushchair or baby carrier in the feeding windows, and at a lot of weird times aswell. Up onto the downs as the sun was coming up was a favourite 😀 ours just loves the fresh air and being outside.

good luck enjoy its tiring but great fun.

We have storage heaters in our flat and were a bit worried about them when we moved in, however having spent two winters with them they are not so bad. Obviously they aren’t as controllable as gas central heating but if you keep an eye on the weather and turn them up and down the day before accordingly they do a good job of keeping the flat at a steady warm temperature, and our electricity bill is more or less the same as our previous flat which had gas central heating (gas and electric combined)

so not as bad as everyone makes out

Although my little boy isn’t tall we thought about getting him a balance bike at christmas he is two at the end of april, so he was more or less 20mths then. The reasoning was that he loves his little trike, razzing all over the place on it. But even though he got all excited about the bikes in the bike shop when we sat him on a balance bike he just didn’t get it. So to cut a long story short we decided to wait until his second birthday with the thought that over the summer he can get used to it and be not only bigger but also better at understanding why it falls over if you put your feet up when not moving :o) i didn’t want to push it on him so he ended up not liking it.

So i would agree with the above comments and say wait a bit and get a little trike in the meantime, we’ve got one of the little wooden ones with a tiger face and tiger print seat cover which get worn as a hat!

I concur with what sui said above, having been on all the same trips! although i have been to verbier one more time than him and therefore ridden the wonderful ginger mullet trail 😀

Verbier is definately my favourite place so far, the techy and natural riding is fantastic and there is just enough climbing versus lift/van work. The banter is great and Phil and Lucy do a very good job of making you feel welcome also following phil down a trail is always entertaining and even if you have a mishap they remain slick (the hospital in sion is very swiss and efficient) Not wanting to sound like i am blowing smoke up their bottoms (Phil might like that) but all the details combined with amazing trails make for a fantastic holiday in my opinion.

The other companies sui mentioned were all great especially ciclomontana in spain and TA in les arcs but for me Bike verbier for the win!! 😀

Got to wait now for the 20 month old to be able to ride a bike and then i will be back.

I have found Mavic 721 rims very strong and they aren’t too bad weight wise, similar to a 321, not sure on the ease of tubeless setup? but combined with a dual ply tyre on the back they have been very robust for me on my dh bike, alps/scotland,spain/wales etc

I can’t decide between putting my set of wheels with these rims off my old dh bike onto my covert or stick with the 321’s? both sets on hope hubs, so they are definately light enough for normal riding

Ah thats a blast from the past! makes me feel old 😀 there was some more over near rain dogs (coming from leith to holmbury) was that in the vids i couldn’t tell? nice touch with the chainsaws at the end

single ply maxxis for me, high roller rear and minion super tacky on the front both 2.3’s ride them til they wear out and then replace and keep them on rain or shine. Same tyres on my hardtail and full suss

Gee is doing alright i reckon, coming back from breaking his leg before val de sole, then having this “moment” in practice and still getting back on to race to 4th place. The problem for everyone else at the moment is Gwin is on fire!!

gee’s crash

Not sure on the amount of twiddles but on my PA i have some uturn pikes and they have been left at full travel due to the uturn winding itself down and my fix(bodge) being to cable tie the twiddler so it can’t move. So to cut a long story short, which may or may not be usefull… i don’t feel the need to adjust the fork down as i reckon the bike works great with 140 or maybe a bit more travel.

Also don’t bother Loco i need him to get cracking on servicing my 36’s :o)