Our Cycle to Work scheme is organised entirely between my employer and the bike shop across the road from our head office (Edinburgh Cycle Co-op). Added bonus of being able to get discounted last season bikes. Don’t know all the ins and outs, but they do an order once per year, get all the details together and BACS the money across for the whole lot straight to the bike shop

Cracking thread, just spent a while reading through from the beginning. Last Christmas when we were all a bit skint the entire family gave each other stuff they had but didn’t use as gifts, and I ended up with the brother-in-law’s homebrew stuff. So far only got as far as doing a couple of brews of the same kit (Wilko’s Meixcan Cerveza) but I’m keen on having a go at BIAB. So after being inspired by this thread I’m going to put a bit of a shopping list together and wait for my Christmas tips to roll in at work and get everything I need to make a start

I had some cracking Dunlop ones a few years back, think they were the Thermo ones. Insanely thick soles, useless for driving in, but you could stand in near-freezing water all day long and not notice. Comfy too

At least Evans was open to be able to tell you they didn’t have it in stock. Though what a shop is thinking actually being open on a day when people might actually be in a position to go and use it is beyond me.

I’d recommend Swim Smooth over TI. Tried TI, but found it to be too much waffle about feelings and mindset. Swim Smooth just made more sense. The Fink books are great, I’ve got the half and full iron books and would recommend them. Can’t Swim, Can’t Bike, Can’t Run is a great book, and worth a read for the inspiration, but it’s not a training plan.

http://www.vinissimus.co.uk/en/%5B/url%5D

Reasonably quick delivery too. Ordered a couple of boxes to sample a few different wines, mainly because we were struggling to find any decent white rioja over here.

By the same logic we’d all be painting our cars yellow with silver stripes, but you never see that advice given out. I agree there’s nothing wrong with advising cyclists to make themselves more visible, but it should be included along with advice to drivers to pay more attention

The wife has taken to ordering in bulk from Spain. The end result is bottles costing about 3 quid that are really quite lovely

Played it with the wife and mother in law a few weeks back. It was disturbing what horrible combinations were being played. I’ll never look at the mother in law in the same light again

Slice some chorizo and gently fry, then chuck some torn up bits of white bread into the pan, coat with the oil from the chorizo and fry for a bit longer. Blitz that lot up with some herbs, and press it onto the top of the cod. Chuck it in the oven for a bit.

After not having used it for years I recently decided to sell some stuff. Didn’t bother to look through the T&Cs, so found out after selling various items that PayPal were going to hold onto the funds for up to 3 weeks “just incase there’s an issue”. Wouldn’t even hand over the postage fees, so had to pay out myself to post the items. Then discovered that rather than actually taking their cut before giving you the money, eBay give you all the money, and then charge you in one lump later in the month. Not been hugely impressed with them

From what I could gather, the NHS will send people abroad for the treatment, if they deem it likely to actually be worth doing for the specific case. They concluded it wasn’t, but the parents decided that their Google skills are better than the medical skills of the doctors

daleftw, I’m in Durham and wanting to get out more. So far only done campsite camping as it’s all the missus will try, and it’s been a while since we last went anyway. But I’d be up for some adventures

And DC Rainmaker himself says he wouldn’t recommend them at the moment, as he’s had issues himself with a production model (the review he did was of a prototype model)

Not done an Ironman yet, attempted at a half last month but failed due to the combined effects of not enough training and the swim being twice the distance it was supposed to be.

I second the point about the swim being mainly technique. My front crawl was utter rubbish last year, and no amount of simply putting the lengths in at the pool would have fixed it. Coaching would have been the best bet, but I went for the cheaper option of the Swim Smooth book, and use that to try to improve my stroke.

I’d also second the point about getting in as much open water training as you can. I didn’t, and my first open water triathlon nearly killed me, even though the swim was just 800m. Faired somewhat better at Ullswater which was 1,500m, though still struggled. Actually did quite well in my half at Bamburgh, especially considering the cock-up with the distance, but it left me drained, as the conditions were also somewhat interesting for swimming in…

Worth giving HSE a call. When I was living in Wales I spent a few months working in a timber yard which ended up almost shut down by HSE after an employee had a run-in with a circular saw. He refused to go anywhere near it until safety was improved so the boss told him to get lost. HSE turned up the next day

No Stairway? Denied!

Just learn any that you feel like you want to learn. Can’t be bothered wasting time learning songs that I feel I should know, I learn songs I want to know

We’ve flown with them a few times from Newcastle to Malaga when we’ve been going to Nerja. Never really had any problems with them other than an hour’s delay coming home last time due to having to send a replacement plane from Manchester. Comfier seats than sleazyjet with more leg room, friendlier staff, and check-in/baggage drop-off always seems to be quicker and easier.

I used to love Children of Bodom, and went to see them live a few years back. Utterly pants live. Don’t know if it’s down to the lead guitarist also being the singer and he can’t quite pull off both at the same time, or if they’re just a bit crap without the polish that can be put on in the studio.

We tend to get 2 types in the pool we use. Either the 2 abreast having a chat whilst doing slow breast stroke, or the aqua jogging lot. If you want to very slowly walk the length of the pool, get out of the lanes. And if you’re there to socialise, likewise, get out of the lanes.

And if you do go for an older body, using something like MagicLantern can get you more features than were originally available. Using 400plus on my 400D for example gives me things like spot metering and a software intervalometer function

Not sure if it’s still on, but 1and1 had an offer on where you could get your first year, including domain registration, for 99p + vat

I’d go for a slightly older body and spend more on the lenses. Been using my Canon 400D for ages and it does the job. The Canon 50mm f1.8 mk2 is a cracking little lens too for not much money

X-Bike Nerja hire out reasonable bikes for not much money. We’ve hired road bikes from them the last couple of times we’ve been in Nerja and it’s worked out cheaper and less hassle than taking our own. And it’s not far along the coast. Lovely ride along the N-340.

We’re with Talk Talk, and all had been well until earlier this week. To be fair, the problem we had wasn’t caused by Talk Talk, it was caused by the BT Openreach engineer working on the line to next door which comes through the same box. End result was our line stopped working. However, we had to go through Talk Talk to get it sorted, and trying to communicate with them is almost impossible.

We pretty much told them what the problem was, but they couldn’t understand us, we couldn’t understand them, and it dragged on and on. Didn’t help when we finally managed to get them to arrange for Openreach to come out and look at it, and the Openreach engineer put a slip through the door saying “everything’s fine outside, we’ll need to come back when you’re home as the problem is within the property” and told the neighbour he could hear our phone ringing inside. Doubt it sunshine, as our landline was being redirected to the wife’s mobile. Second engineer strangely managed to fix it without entering the property.

And a couple more from today.

Road Bike Cassette by durhambiker[/url], on Flickr

Road Bike Fork by durhambiker[/url], on Flickr

Here’s a couple taken this morning. Had wanted to get out last night to get some sky shots before the moon came up but typically the clouds started rolling in as the sun was going down.

Rusty Chiminea by durhambiker[/url], on Flickr

Rusty Chiminea Detail by durhambiker[/url], on Flickr

For a good beer garden with a view, the George Borrow Hotel down the road from Nant yr Arian. Worked there for 5 years and never got bored of the setting.

Then there’s the Tan Hill Inn, the highest inn in the British Isles. Run by some strange people though. Last time we went up there we couldn’t have a double room as they were full, but we were the only people up there.

Talk to myself regularly at work. Get more sense that way than speaking to half my customers. Only tend to speak to myself when I’m in the van on my own mind

After going out for an hour long run and listening to Earth Rocker all the way through again, I’ve got home and grabbed an mp3 copy of The Elephant Riders. I suspect I’ll have Clutch’s entire back catalogue before long

Aye, also got Strange Cousins From The West and From Beale Street To Oblivion.

Need to get more!

Just bought a download copy of Earth Rocker by Clutch. Been meaning to get it for ages, and after seeing it mentioned at least twice in this thread I went and got it straight away. Just listened to it all and loved it

KISS – Rock N Roll All Nite. I find it’s got just the right beat.
Joe Esposito – You’re The Best. Pure cheese but works

Hallowed Be Thy Name, and Fear of the Dark (live in Rio).

As for newer songs, really quite like Coming Home after hearing it live for the first time in Newcastle a couple of years back

We use Caddys exclusively at work. Previously they were Connects, but everyone has been much happier since the change over

I’m using the Decathlon one on my road bike to feed cadence data to my Forerunner 910. Works fine.

Get photographs of the area, showing the lack of signage. Then ignore the letters and wait for anything else to happen, then produce the evidence.

Used to work for a security company that also did clamping, and as I was on-call for the security side, I got lumbered with taking calls for the clampers. Horrible industry and from what I can gather it’s not much better with the clamping side removed from it

+1 for getting a cheap prime lens. The Canon 50mm f1.8 mk2 is a cracking lens and costs peanuts

I need to head up towards Beamish for a mooch on the bike, not done enough exploring since moving up this way

May you never be parted from each other. Had my follow up appointment with the doctor today. He called me into the office, told me the exact same thing the ultrasound tech told me, asked me if everything was feeling alright, and sent me on my way. Still, got me out of work early!