Advertised my Dad’s 12 year old Mazda CX5 this year. Advert was honest with tons of pics. Quote from Motorway seemed very generous so I accepted in principle. Only when using Motorway did I realise how it actually works. Once the first trader offers a high bid, the car is reserved for them. This particular trader initially failed to trap and gave numerous excuses as to why. They eventually arrived 10 days after their online offer was made. Cue much tyre kicking and made up nonsense about head gaskets (slight oil spill when filling at last service) and a supposed £800 repair required to a ‘badly’ damage door (actually a tiny dink that didn’t break the paint skin). Lo and behold, they offered bottom book auction price for a low mileage, fully serviced, newly MOT’d, car in excellent condition. Private sales of this model at a similar age, mileage and condition were thousands more on Auto Trader.

In hindsight, this is an excellent model for traders to follow. The high bid, being accepted in principle, stops competitors viewing the vehicle. This lack of competition and endless delay in turning up places pressure on the seller to accept the only offer they’ll get via Motorway and they may by then need the cash quite urgently if trading up.

Duly told the trader to poke it and I sold it locally via Auto Trader for just shy of the original bid.

Motorway contacted me asking why I hadn’t sold through them. I pointed out the trader’s dodgy behaviour and they hung up on me. I’d previously heard good things about Motorway from others selling newer cars but it clearly also attracts chancers set on using high bid / reservation, delaying tactics to pressurise sellers into accepting derisory offers.

Had a Mavic Mini for a few years now. The trickiest part for me is editing. Trying to squeeze about 40 mins of ‘samey’ footage into an interesting 2 minute clip using clunky software literally takes hours and renders the whole process barely worthwhile.

There’s also the faff of safely carrying a drone while riding off road, digging it out your pack, setting up the controller and powering the drone up / down for each clip. It’s all hugely time consuming and I only carry the kit if the weather and scenery warrant it. That said, if you do get a settled day in a scenic area, drone footage adds a dimension far beyond yet more shaky handlebar mounted footage of the mud spattered arse of the person riding in front of you.

I have Forclaz MT900 walking trousers from Decathlon. They are windproof, stretchy, very comfortable and quite robust. The pockets double up as vents and I quite like the lace hooks to hold them down onto boots when walking in rough vegetation. Wife calls them my ‘Willy’ trousers as they are rather ‘snug’ at the crotch and not suitable for the school run.

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/men’s-water-repellent-and-wind-resistant-trekking-trousers-mt900/_/R-p-338628?mc=8789023&c=colorless_black_grey&utm_term=8789023-4797282&gclsrc=aw.ds&&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=gb_t-brand_ct-shopp_n-brand-protection_ts-ret_f-cv_o-reve_spd-msp_spu-msp_sp-msp_pt-all_pnl-com_l-en_pp-gads_bm-roa_pr-cpc_&utm_term=_n-brand-protection_ts-ret_spd-msp_spu-msp_sp-msp_pt-all_l-en_brand-protection&keyword=&network=g&placement=&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwjNS3BhChARIsAOxBM6o2IZH0hoTJM18slMLFBnbzK7XofCw0gbvJ-hqedMv0cjNo2dXN8e0aAnoWEALw_wcB

Dips into thread….

Observes prolonged, tangental, pedantic bickering.

….Bye for now

The NHS will always be a victim of it’s own success. Save a life?, the person comes back again and again for more treatment as they age and decline. Let them die first time round?, no more patient to drain future resources. <sarcasm> Simples!

Except it isnt simple at all. My octogenarian parents attend many more out patient and GP appointments than my children. They no longer contribute financially to society but did so for decades. They’ve earned their treatment from cradle to grave. One of the weans will become a net contributor to society, the other won’t, both will need the NHS. Who chooses?

What type of treatment does the NHS withhold and from whom? Liver transplant for an alcoholic? Heart and lung transplant for a heavy smoker? Orthopaedic treatment for a mountain biker? All self inflicted, so sod ’em all?

It’s an impossible situation in a humane society but keeping Tories, US insurance companies and shareholders as far away from the NHS as possible would be a great start.

Thanks all.

“Escort, Fiesta or Razzle”

Sounds like 80’s Fords. Razzle STI might not have sold well…

Wooly rules are easiest to unravel.

“poo on work time”

Especially during overtime, earning time and a turd.

If it ain’t broke….

Better the devil you know….

etc, etc….

Whoever you go with, look into taking out a stand alone CDW excess policy. I had a 12 month policy with Eversure that cost a tiny fraction of taking CDW with the hiring company.

Renting from a large international company doesn’t guarantee fair play. I arranged an urgent one day rental from Sixt at Luton Airport, was upgraded to a specific car at their suggestion and minimal extra cost. It had a fair bit of pre-existing damage, which was discussed / agreed with the rep but he didn’t write anything down. On returning that night, the crew went straight to that damage and I got an email the next day suggesting I was responsible. The rep didn’t know I’d photographed the damage to the ‘upgrade’ before driving off and they only backtracked when I emailed them the pics. ‘Genuine error’ my arse, they’d missed recording the damage from a previous hirer and upgraded me and my stand alone CDW to cover their losses. Chancers.

Fast forward to Sixt Adelaide a few months on. Rental of a people carrier, to be dropped at Melbourne four weeks later, so different depot with no prior knowledge of the vehicle. Took dozens of pictures of 40+ dings, scrapes and interior marks. Expressed concerns to the Adelaide rep that I’d be catching the rap, especially after 4 weeks. ‘No worries’, just keep your pics. Dropped car at Melbourne some 3000km later and wanted to show damage pics to staff. Waved away with a ‘no worries’ again and heard nothing more. Couldn’t have been nicer.

Same company, totally different behaviour. It’s a lottery.

Take lots of pics and if it’s making noises, take video as well.

How do they know it wasn’t just carried by a glacier and then found in the locality?

…terminally morainic comment.

“If it’s not on STRAVA it didn’t happen”

Go away you odious narcissists. I’ll choose to record or not record any activity I undertake and your opinion in this matter is irrelevant.

Cake not Strava!

FLOTUS appears to be working him from the back, as per Nancy and Ron a few years ago. For the good of his party, country and the free world it’s obvious he has to go, and soon, to allow a younger, more capable, replacement to be selected to debate / defeat Trump.

You could understand the logic if they’d flown some drones over an oil refinery and dropped some orange powder over tanks or pipes, y’know, to just stop oil. Targeting an ancient monument that predates the oil industry by a few millennia makes them look like childish attention seekers. Sure they did get attention but if the overwhelming reaction is negative, to such an irrelevant and harmful action, what do they actually win but scorn and stronger reactions from the authorities and media? Weird.

Tried a couple of introductory dives in the Med and am going again next month. It’s quite pleasant in warm clear water down to about 10m and if it all goes Pete Tong that big sky full of air isn’t too far away. Deep diving in UK waters in a drysuit with a torch doesn’t appeal at all.

I used to write policies / standard operating procedures for how police vehicles should be used. I also ran a police driving school for three years. At no time did the subject of herding, nudging or disabling livestock ever feature in either role. You just can’t account for every scenario or the rules and associated training would be endless.

Sure, police control rooms can call on AFOs to dispatch animals but a heifer ain’t an XL Bully and the firepower needed for a clean kill on something so ..err, meaty is hugely unwelcome in an urban environment. Police control rooms do have 24 hour hotlines to call out vets, the military etc etc but tranquilisers are way too slow and that’s not what the military are for, especially when the police have their own AFOs.

I’d guess the control room will have called the keyholders for the nearest farms, without success, before the decision was taken to **** the beast with a patrol vehicle. I’ve seen it done to people armed with axes, swords and knives (pre-taser days) and it’s way less lethal to the subject (and potentially any bystanders) than being shot. Having often seen the carnage that sheep, deer, cattle and horses can cause when running loose on the roads, the outcome to this ‘high steaks’ situation was very much towards the least worse end of possibilities.

Pearl clutching, hand wringing nonsense.

Wife and I both lost weight by fasting between 7pm and 1pm the following day. We eat lunch and dinner and these are low carb, so no pasta, sugary sauces, potatoes in any form, grains or bread. It’s surprisingly easy to lose weight if you can stick with it but gawd is it dull and ‘samey’. Omelette for lunch then meat and greens for dinner nearly every sodding day. We have a carby takeaway every Friday to stay sane.

And yet when it came to police choking a black man to death on the street in Scotland

There’s still time to give Lord Bracadale your evidence, the Inquiry resumes next week.

My current hardtail is a 1997 Airborne Lucky Strike, The only welding it has had was when Vernon Barker added a rear disc mount a few years later. I’m reluctant to say more lest I jinx the old thing.

I more often use a 2019 PX Tempest (Mk3) gravel bike. It’s seen a fair bit of abuse but has so far proved robust, comfy and reliable.

I was waiting for a punchline….. All we got was some geezer getting upset about his waistline.

Paunchline Shirley?

Have two wheelsets for my Tempest. Made sure to buy the same brand hubs / discs for both to make swapping painless. Wide and chunky tyres and an 11-40 cassette on one set, narrower and smoother tyres with an 11-34 cassette on t’other. Fitted a road link to help the rear mech with chain capacity but the clutch (just) takes care of slack without it.

We were given an HP printer for free and, entirely due to their naïve misconception that they were in control, promptly binned it and bought a Canon G4510 inktank that takes aftermarket ink costing £5.86 for 135ml. We will never buy an HP product and sincerely hope they crash and burn for being greedy barstewards.

Massive own goal for an indoor training app to hike their prices in May as the weather / daylight improves and many will already be swithering whether to bother keeping subs going over the summer anyway. This could sway more users to pause accounts and bite Zwift on the arse. I do use it all year but will switch to annual subs from next month as that takes the monthly equivalent from £13 to £15, rather than £18.

Brass Monkeys / Pure Baltic

Gnat’s chuff

Hunners

If I’d lost a foot and my supposed friends came up with so much dark humour, I’d be hopping mad.

West of Scotland here too, on a flood plain in the Clyde Valley. Converted the back garden from grass to a mix of patio, decking and gravel. Previously it had been largely unusable due to either being boggy or the grass being too wet to cut until May. It was so wet, we had frogs despite not having a pond. It’s all actually useable now. Just jet wash the slabs and decking every spring and we can enjoy the garden on both days of summer. The frogs now live under the decking and can more effectively hide from the neighbourhood cats. Win Win!

Decking is NeoTimber Advanced, highly recommended.

But not ownership by non dom billionaires…..

I’ve owned a V90 D4 for over 4 years now. It’s been from Renfrewshire to as far afield as West Sussex, Shetland and Orkney. It’s an effortless, refined and comfortable long distance cruiser. It’s as least as well built and more reliable than German rivals for quite a bit less money. Boot size is merely average given the overall size of car and the auto gearbox is way too hesitant in eco mode but the many good points allow such details to be forgiven. Mrs particularly loves the heated seats. It’s averaged 46mpg overall and tops 50mpg on motorway runs. Won’t be changing it for a very long time.

A bombproof 1980s Karrimor Bardale Bar bag in fetching blue and orange cordura, still used to carry the drone. An 80s nylon Polar waterproof pacamac with mesh sleeves in a mesh bag that lives in a saddlebag. Ron Hill tracksters (complete with foot loops) of a similar vintage that I still wear in winter. The obligatory late 90s SPD pedals on my commuter that won’t die. 8sp XT shifters on the same bike that have worked flawlessly for 25 years. A tub of 90s Judy Butter I’ll never finish. An early 70s Pletscher sprung carrier rack is probably the oldest personal item still in use but I’ve a few obsolete tools and bits from my dad that were probably bought in the 50s. Most notably, a metal french chalk tin with perished rubber bung that still forms part of my repair kit.

Reckon my wife will chuck the lot when I snuff it.

Best place I’ve seen for weird and wonderful vintage kit is the loft space at Wheelcraft. Big Al’s been squirreling stuff up there for decades.

Thanks folks. Hadn’t considered the world beyond cycling kit but MX, weightlifting and sailing gloves will possibly offer similar features.

+1 for doris5000’s Amazon recommendation above. I bought that same pack of 100 pairs in 2021 and the improvement to both the quality and length of my sleep has been immense. Total game changer, my wife hasn’t been smothered and I’m not sharing a cell with another lifer, who would probably snore even more than she does. They are also good for cycling and fishing weekends when sharing a room with beery blokes.

My OCD makes me a champion faffer.

“Stoap pissarsing aboot an’ git oan wi’ it” has been directed at me more than once.

Wouldn’t recommend riding up the A82 Trunk Road. It’s rammed with coaches, logging trucks and campervans all summer. Safer alternatives would involve considerable detours up the west coast or using gravel bikes and going off road.

Gorgeous George. The cat that got the cream.

Sure, he’ll be out on his ear by next year but results like this are fantastic for ruffling a few establishment feathers. Whilst a self serving egomaniac, he’s got more gravitas and savvy than most and, if the Speaker lets him, he’ll be handing out arses on plates for the next few months.

This is what happened the last time the ‘establishment’ underestimated him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVdYp2GDC-4

The disparity between male and female golf influencer attire on YouTube / TikTok is right up there with beach volleyball team kit. We will all have our own thoughts on how (in)appropriate skin tight leggings or very short ‘skorts’ are when trying to get golfing tips but it’s a free / sexist world and some people are capitalising on their femininity to get clicks and likes. The PGA professional in that clip will be making a killing now. Not 100% sure it wasn’t actually staged.

After The Indy and Brexit referenda, I abandoned Aunty Beeb in favour of Channel 4 News on TV and the Gruniad online. Both cover stories avoided by the Tory centric MSM and ask difficult questions that client journalists wouldn’t dare to.

Quite Bylines curious too. Their content on X seems like a more mature Private Eye.

Just been to Oz and back.

Pick seats well away from toilets, bassinettes and crew galleys to minimise disturbance.

Big silk eye mask great for cutting all light. Just make sure it’s long enough to go around headphones.

NC headphones with conical foam plugs underneath work well at isolating all sound when flying at altitude. Two issues though; 1. The headphones will transmit vibration through your head if they touch any part of the plane. Not so bad from a fold-in headrest or neck pillow but very intrusive when sat in a window seat and resting head on fuselage lining. 2. Foam earplugs seal your ear canal and are best removed before descending to avoid serious ear discomfort. Take chewing gum for the descent.

Pillows. If using a memory foam neck pillow, make sure it isn’t too bulky at the rear and choose one that fastens at the front. Take a small rectangular travel pillow to support the small of your back. Rolled up fleece does the same job.

Wear loose fitting comfy clothes and shoes.

Pack travel size toiletries in your hand luggage to freshen up at transitions or if delayed.

DB600s you say….? (Drums fingers in anticipation of bargain 2nd hand road wheels for the Tempest)