We loved it, great use of music as well. Couldn’t work out why Adam Scott was looking so weird in the last ep till I realised he’d shaved his beard off!

Liked that movie Wild that Witherspoon and the director previously did too, must have latent homosexual tendencies :roll:

I’ve got 2 of those on my downtube from Peak District rocks, they’re badges of honour :lol:

Thought I’d picked up another one on Monday when I heard/felt a massive clang off the down-tube, surprisingly nothing there though I’ll probably find it on one of the rare occasions that the bike is actually clean. Did convince me to to buy a rockguard though…

Whoever looks most like a super-mutant from Fallout.

The highlight of my trip was a surf trip to a national park between Sydney and Byron where we camped out beside the beach and went surfing every day. Woke up to kangaroos bouncing around, saw humpbacks breaching (from a fairly long distance, but still :lol: ), and had pods of dolphins playing in the surf with us.

Might be too much time out of your schedule (or you might hate surfing), but I’d thoroughly recommend it. Think it was Surfaris[/url] I did it with.

+1 for wot Jekkyl says, but stop at the Ladybower Inn for a pint!

It’s showing on mine on android, app is up to date too.

Also got caught out with this, no adapter with mine either. Improvised with a mile wrench and some rags to stop it scratching Unsuccessfully!). Waiting on CRC to get them back in stock for when it needs to come back off.

After a successful return to commuting by bike I’m taking my cold-ravaged lungs for their first proper off-road ride in 2 months at Llandegla today. Depending how that goes it’ll either be the dark peak on Monday, Gisburn, or a local trundle.

The plus side of being off it for 2 months is that I’m like a little kid today, can’t wait to go ride!

Anything that detracts from your concentration and motor skills makes you a less safe driver, with alcohol/playing with your phone at one end of the scale and things like changing a CD or talking to your passengers at the other. Being stoned is probably somewhere in between those 2 points depending on how stoned you are.

depends on the area the house is in.

+1 – nice cottage in a village, it probably wouldn’t make any difference to me. In a row of terraced houses close to a city, I’m probably going to assume (probably unfairly) that they’re small-minded bigots.

I don’t see how you can say anything about it to him without pissing him off though, as it’ll always come down to “my neighbour thinks I am/I look like a bigot”. I’d only say something if you’re getting feedback from the estate agent that buyers are being put off by it. That way you can blame them, everyone knows they’re soul-less scumbags anyway :D

Completely separate accounts, I pay a larger share of the mortgage and all of the council tax as I earn more (2.5x) and everything else is split down the middle. I pay for everything and then she gets a total at the end of the month to transfer over, which is also handy for keeping an eye on monthly spending. However, if there are any big purchases (house deposits, new kitchen, car, etc) then I generally pay for it.

We’re both happy with this arrangement and have never had an argument about money in the 8 years we’ve been together – we don’t have kids though and both work full time. For us it works because we’d probably both hold off buying semi-frivolous things (bike bits in my case and knitting bits in hers) if it was coming out of a joint pool, as we wouldn’t want to be wasting “our” money.

I also saw what happened to my brother at the end of his marriage where his wife, who we all thought was lovely and would never do such a thing, absolutely rinsed their joint accounts and credit cards and left him in a ton of debt while she buggered off to Dubai.

<<end of thread>>

The toll will enable you to get quicker to the accident black spot that is the north of Birmingham M6.

+1 – it’s inevitable that you’ll lose all the time you gained on the toll when some eejit (or a succession of eejits) decides to have an accident or breakdown somewhere between just before Stoke and north of Manchester. And then you’ll have to deal with the average speed zones which seem to make up about 70% of that stretch of the M6 these days. Still it’s usually ok once you’re past Preston. Till you end up behind a convoy stuck behind a granny going at 40 mph in a 60 in the Lakes. :lol:

I’d just use the meet and greet service – not usually that much more, but makes life a lot easier if you have a lot of stuff as it’s a fairly short walk to the terminal from there and you avoid having to get a bus which may be a pain if you have a lot of gear.

Last year we used one of the JetParks that’s about a 15 min bus journey away as it was a bit cheaper and it was sodding miserable coming back knackered, having to wait for the bus, then drive around about a million car parks before we got to ours. By the time we got there we could have been home if we got a taxi! Swore after that that it was meet and greet all the way…

I use it when heading down south at that time and as Binners says, it’s a no-brainer. Trips north-bound using it are usually afternoon/evening (again a no-brainer) so not sure what it would be like at that time in the morning. However, if you don’t use it and get stuck in traffic you’ll be kicking yourself, worth the £5.50 IMO!

I think I’ve done one or two trips passing Birmingham where I didn’t use the toll and I’ve regretted it every time. Still, better than actually having to go to Birmingham…

Yeah, we went to Italy last summer which she also loved – I think with just a weekend though we want to do a city rather than a smaller place so we can cram more stuff in.

A room from Air B&B with a DVD of Logan’s Run

The crystal in my hand has been flashing for so long that I actually get the reference!

Good suggestions, thanks! We’re thinking of doing a tour of South-Eastern Europe next summer so Budapest is on the agenda for that. Possibly can fit Vienna into that trip too!

I tried a few things but none really worked. Mine mostly felt like I had gunk in my lungs that was irritating them so tried guaifenesin as it’s (allegedly) an expectorant. Jury is out on whether it did anything or not, felt a bit better with it but probably just placebo effect!

Just had it, started about 17th March and the regular coughing only really went away last week, though it’s still lurking at the back if I try to push hard when I’m out on the bike. Still not feeling 100% either which could be post-viral fatigue.

It’s an annoying wee bugger, as Paul says you feel fine otherwise so you want to get out riding but know you shouldn’t! Hope you feel better!

It’ll be fine, done the same myself.

That’s a pity – Cut gate isn’t the flowiest trail! I wouldn’t write the Dark Peak off though if you’re looking for flow trails, as Jekkyl says the Lockerbrook descent is fast and great fun (IMO). Also try Whinstone Lee Tor to the Ladybower Inn, that flows well other than the middle section, and Hagg farm as well (though it’s a bit rockier).

Of course, I really should have known that! :? :oops:

I just looked up aardvarking…

Managing to misuse “your” instead of “you’re” when calling them stupid – classic :lol:

Edit – dammit, too slow with the pedantry!

blues and bourbon or whiskey and wimmin

go for a walk in the woods / read a book / play an instrument

Have been trying that, I’m a total lightweight who can’t handle hangovers though. For some reason whisky (already awesome) is about 25% better when you have a cold :D

Strive to become an Internet Legend?

I shall leave that to you Perchy :wink:

Pornhub?

I certainly wouldn’t know anything about that, is it a website? *checks over shoulder for girlfriend watching*

As for chesty coughs, November I had mine, still got it.

Bugger, that’s bad news. Your abs must be like rocks by now though! I’ve currently got a sore muscle in my side from coughing so much…

Oh, and prepare him for the fact that toasters and kettles may not exist over there!

Did one back in 2001, as others have said it was brilliant, will be an amazing experience for him. Main thing I’d be looking to find out is have students from Strathy been there before – we were the 1st year that went and no-one seemed to know what to do with us for the first month (though it was a lab placement rather than studying). If folk have been there before I’d imagine it’ll be fine, everything was pretty well organised when we went.

One thing I hadn’t thought of was that there wouldn’t be sheets/duvet provided – made for a fairly uncomfortable first night!

How occasionally?

Once every month or two – involves 5:30 starts and getting home around 7 (or whenever the M6 feels like letting me home) so getting a hire car would be too much hassle having to sort it out the day before. Would rather compromise on how the bike goes in rather than that!

Tie/strap the forks down in a slightly compressed state?

Yeah, there are definitely ways round it so it not going in upright if uncompressed isn’t a deal breaker. Just hadn’t expected that there would be less height than in the Focus so was a little thrown and wanted to see what others experience had been!

Van!

If I didn’t have to occasionally use the car for client visits and ferrying colleagues up and down the M6 as well I’d probably give one serious consideration.

Why not a focus estate?

Fancy a change away from the Focus otherwise it might be on the list, not overly keen on the styling though.

Have you thought about an SUV type car as they tend to have way more height in the boot?

Not a fan of them I’m afraid.

The equation for me is:

More boot space than focus and will take bike inside
+
Nice to look at (to me)
+
Faster than the focus (1.6 and takes an age to overtake)
+
Decent handling

Which for me rules out MPVS and SUVs :D

Ah, suggesting the idea of me being a medium if I’m 5’7″ is ridiculous. I see.

I meant the bike was a medium, I’m well aware I’m short thanks :lol:

Thanks Daffy, very helpful!

What’s Jimmy Hill about?

I would say a 3 series tourer is small compared to a Mazda6 estate?

Yeah, it is small compared to the 6 – possibly more my size though as never had anything bigger than a focus before!

TBH its more a case of how tall are you as at 6’3″ my bikes are XL so even dropping the seatpost won’t help as the bars will still be to high

I’m 5’7″ so medium, think I’ve just got the idea into my head that I ‘should’ be able to get it in upright based on the current car. Having to readjust my thinking somewhat based on the measurements today!

Maybe try growing up?

Was not aware that not liking the way roof racks look was immature, thanks, I shall of course immediately change my views :roll:

How many passengers?

Usually zero, when we do go away it’s generally just me and the girlfriend and 1 bike so it’ll all fit one way or another in a small estate. Guess I’ll just take the frame along to the test drive and see how the salesman react when I ask if I can stick it in the back :lol:

Any reason the bike doesn’t go outside the vehicle?

Keep it wheels off in the house for storage so always seemed more sensible just to stick it in the back and build it up when I get to the trails. Suppose I could just get a roof rack but as I wouldn’t use it for 90% of the bike trips when it’s just me I’d have to find somewhere to store that as well.

Also, aesthetics :D

Why upright?

I guess just because that’s the way I’ve always done it in the current car if we’re going away and needing to take suitcases etc to maximise space. If its just me on a normal biking trip i’ll just stick it in on its side.

Don’t like putting the bike on top of cases and certainly don’t want to put cases on top of it, but I guess it might be less of an issue in something with a longer space in the back as it probably wouldn’t need to be angled as much as it is in the current car.

Has to be something I think is attractive* so the Touran and any other boxy cars are out. Am wondering if I’d be better off getting a saloon if I can’t get the frame in upright as they’re generally cheaper and better looking!

*I’m sure some people will find my choices fugly! :D

Was it this one?

Good programme, tough to watch but couldn’t tear myself away from it (it got very dusty in the room at times).

Always thought he was a bit of an idiot when he was playing but it’s completely changed my view of him. Very brave to take on such a show and open up like he did, and he seems like a decent guy and a good dad. Can’t imagine how I’d handle it in his place.