Thanks, that’s good to know – might be the best solution

I think I must just have quite knobbly wrist bones! Yeah, that is the obvious solution but it’s another chunk of cash and I’m not sure how comfy I’d find an HR strap.

It sounds to me that the surgeon wants to do the op under local and you’ve asked to have it done under a general due to the issues you mentioned. My guess would be that the casual use of the 20% stat is what she sees as being the easiest way to convince you to do the op under a local.

I’m not saying she’s wrong to want to do it under a local, I’d assume that if that’s her preference then there are reasons (maybe faster discharge time, improved outcomes, etc).

They’re cartridge bearings so that’s a bit of a plus. The tools issue was the lack of a chain whip & cassette tool which would have prevented me accessing the drive side bearing, so I wouldn’t have been able to add lube to that one. Kinda miss my old Hope hubs where you could just pop the whole free hub off the axle 😁.

I managed to find a cheap kit that has the tools I need and got them delivered to the next stop on our journey, so I’ll hopefully be able to replace them if they arrive in a reasonable amount of time!

Well that would definitely be bad 🤣

Just like the other thread that’s up just now, I typed a response then deleted it and thought “I can’t be arsed”. But then I thought there’s a slim chance that Edukator isn’t trolling or just arguing for the sake of arguing, and actually thinks he’s being reasonable.

Goodnight all. Sleep on it, and then look at it objectively in the morning.

As someone reading the thread for the first time, you come across as an argumentative pedant who is just itching to start a fight (even before the edited post). Seems perfectly reasonable to have a moan about someone walking in front of you without looking, and if we’re getting all pedantic then it seems to me that the pedestrian is the one who disobeyed the highway code RE looking before you cross and avoiding crossing between parked cars. But no doubt you’ll take issue with that too…

We’ve lived in Prestwich for ~7 years now, we moved recently and considered some of the other areas mentioned (like Rammy) but decided to stay in Prestwich as it’s easier for my wife to get into town for work.

Pros:
Relatively good value for money compared with south Manchester, though it’s getting pricier.
Some nice little cafes/bars.
~20 minute ride into town with decent(ish) cycle infrastructure on the way in (not so much on the way back).
Lots of parks around for walks (Heaton Park, Drinkwater, Philips)
Philips park is decent for a local ride.
~1 h to the Peak and ~1.5 h to south lakes for riding.
Met stops nearby making town access easy (though it’s always rammed and horrible at rush hour).

Cons:
Traffic through Prestwich can be a nightmare (but I basically only drive to go biking, so not much of an issue for me).
Prestwich centre is pretty ugly, though that seems to be an issue in most areas of Manchester.
Demand for houses was pretty high when we put our house on the market last year, ended up with 6 offers within a week – however, apparently the biggest demand is in the £200-300k bracket and houses above £300kish take longer to shift so you might be ok with your budget.
Weather has been utter shit this summer!

Endlessly amusing that “high rake” is the golden ticket and the only team that don’t follow that blueprint are going to win the constructors for the 7th time in a row.

I seem to remember a secret aerodynamicist article on the BBC website where they were saying that, apart from Merc, most of the other teams copied the high rake philosophy from red bull without really understanding it because they assumed if Adrian Newey was doing it it must be ‘right’. Not really looking that way right now!

Being able to explain something in simple terms to a 6 year old is the Eisenstein definition of understanding

Just because Einstein said it doesn’t mean it’s right. Some of the smartest people I knew during my postgrad work were the worst teachers of simple concepts because they knew so much about a subject that they couldn’t communicate those concepts simply. Equally, less ‘smart’ people that I knew with a worse grasp of the subject were better teachers because they could do this.

RE the defund the police thing, Last Week Tonight explained it well for me in this Video.

Essentially some (not all) US police forces have become over-militarized, are actively being trained to view themselves as ‘killers’, and are near-impossible to reform due to union power. For one New Jersey (I think) police force the only way to root out the corruption that had become endemic was to dissolve it and re-hire the good officers.

Well, you deserve it for having a bubble-blowing machine! Definitely been there, I seem to have very sensitive hearing when it’s quiet and I have to track down any weird noises in the house. My wife can never hear them and just looks at me like I’m mad…

What Grum said – no-one is born an arsehole, arseholes are created. How they are created is no doubt a complicated mix that’s beyond my ability to properly understand, but progressively withdrawing support from people in vulnerable situations over the past decades will have played a part.

Too often in this country we’re short-sighted when it comes to spending – investment in social infrastructure has been shown to have a long-term positive ROI (e.g. reducing policing costs for this kind of twattery), but it’s usually first on the chopping block when the politicians need to save some money.

SRAM might never have made a FD + chainring that equalled Shimano’s but Eagle 12 chain and cassette lifespan tests as really durable – comes out on top by a good margin in one test I saw.

Matches with my real-world experience, I’ve had one change of drivetrain with Eagle in ~18 months of riding whereas I was replacing cassette and chains every 6 months or so and one or both chainrings every 12 months or so with Shimano on my previous 2×10 bike. Same riding (mostly Peak District), distance, and washing (or lack of) with both, though I did get better at rotating my chain every 300 km with Eagle. Never really bothered with Shimano given the low price.

Clearer info on the .gov website than the sloppy reporting.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/stamp-duty-land-tax-temporary-reduced-rates

Looks like they haven’t updated the calculator yet…

Going off what I’ve just heard on the radio, I think you’ll still be paying the SD as an offer has been accepted.

That can’t be right (I hope – due to complete in 3 weeks), how would they enforce it? Presumably people could just mutually agree to terminate the offers all round and then have them re-accepted. Was it for those with contracts already exchanged who hadn’t moved yet?

Hope it isn’t, as we’ve been stuck in limbo with our house since January due to archaic English law stupidity and a little bit of luck for a change would be nice. Would still prefer to have moved earlier in the year and paid the tax, but this would do nicely!

For me, it’s often not the actual act itself that causes the rage – like you I try to just tut at it as losing it never helps – but underlying stress/anger that the act is a release trigger for. I think we’re all feeling more stress than usual due to the whole COVID thing, whether consciously or not, so it’s not surprising to lose it when an idiot drives their car at you. Plus, one outburst in 10 years is pretty good going!

Thanks all, it looks like it’s basically a coin toss! We’re supposed to be moving ‘any day now’, but then we’ve been in that situation for about 3 months now… I think if we can move before end of July it is probably worthwhile given that (after a chat with the boss today) the Swiss move isn’t on the cards til 2021 and there’s still a chance in my mind that it’ll all fall apart.

RE living in Switzerland and costs, I’ve been there quite a lot for work and I’ve basically assumed a 100% increase in living costs and rent of CHF 5-6k per month when estimating the salary I’ll need – hopefully it will be enough! Personally I wouldn’t plan on coming back as I’ve lived abroad before and I know I’ll love it (hobbies are MTB, snowboarding and walking, so it’ll probably be nirvana!), but my wife has never done it and might not be able to find work easily so there is potential for her to find it difficult. Plus parents on both sides are getting older and we may need to come back to the UK at some point to deal with the issues that come with that.

Thanks everyone, at the moment I probably lean towards option 1 as there’s a small possibility that the logistics (plus the difference in what they’d have to pay me) for the company won’t work out, and we’re then at least in what could be a ‘forever’ home (apart from the area). Plus we have somewhere nice to come back to if it all goes tits up. I’d definitely go with the laziest possible rental option and just hope to not lose too much money on it!

keep your current house as an inflation proof investment

That’s an interesting option that we hadn’t considered, we could probably carry the mortgage on the current house by using savings but it does leave us a bit exposed if we burn through those – it’s hard to get a good feel for how much of my salary will be left over when living abroad as my wife will probably be unable to work in the short term.

Most of what I would say has already been covered, but here it is anyway:
Knife sets are usually very poor value, generally better to buy individual knives.
You really only need 1 good chef’s knife and a bread knife, everything else is just a nice-to-have.
Victorinox Fibrox is well-recommended as a relatively inexpensive but good knife, Wusthof Ikon is recommended as a step-up from that.
Reddit has a good sub (r/chefknives) that has a lot of good advice and a good getting started section – it’s very US focused though so not all of their recommendations will be easily available.

We’ve had plenty of exchanges over email, he just sometimes goes AWOL for a bit and it gets frustrating. He’s also working from home during COVID and the phone number in his signature just goes to the office, which says “please contact the partners directly”. Except to get his direct dial, I’d have to email him. Which he isn’t responding to. Grrr….

Perfect, thanks! My current ones are both about 120 mm from the hinge, so I think these would work well with about 10 mm less on the shortest setting. Ideally I’d go somewhere and try them on, but I can’t see many shops wanting you putting things on your face in the next few months!

Thanks, just had a wee google and the temple adjustment looks like it would do the business! If it’s not too much hassle, would you mind measuring the leg length on the shortest setting? I’ve seen 121 mm posted as the length on one website, but it doesn’t say what setting it was on.

I got the Gladiator shed as I wanted it to replace the old shed which was falling down plus store bikes. It’s good, I’d happily get another. Went together pretty easily by myself, only bit I needed help with was the roof which was a little tricky with me at 5’7″ and the Mrs. at 5’0″!

Edit – the most time consuming bit was levelling the patio stones it sits on, we ripped up the old ones and laid new sub-base then spent a good bit of time getting things as level as we could. We never had any issues with the doors as a result, but not sure if we needed to be as exacting as we were with it.

If you can manage to get on the chat function they’ll sort you out – had a similar request and they just asked what part it was on the diagram and then sorted an order out. Should imagine you’ll get a response eventually through email, they’re very backed up just now though – it’s taken over a month to get my broken seat stays sorted.

So sorry to hear that, but like others have said you can take some small comfort in knowing you gave him the best life he could have had in the years he was with you. Now off to give ours a big hug…

I have the Fox Ranger water pants and they’re pretty good – they’re not super-waterproof so they’re not that sweaty and they’re very comfy.

Agree with others that there’s nothing meaningful we can contribute until we know why she wants to give up work – however, the fact that neither of you is willing to back down from your position is a bit of a red flag for the relationship. IME one partner saying “I’m doing this and I don’t care what you say” is never a good thing.

(When it comes to serious stuff anyway. If it’s stuffing a full tub of ice cream in your face it’s probably fine)

I’ve had swollen lymph nodes since about October as well, there’s maybe something going around? I’ve also had fatigue, sinus problems and recently a cough as well though, so mine is most likely related to (possibly multiple) viral infections. Been to the doc and had bloods done which showed nothing – hard to shake the feeling you’re wasting their time, but better safe than sorry!

Two I did last year, can easily be stitched together:

Easy one round Claife Heights

Bigger one, got a bit lost I think towards the end coming back towards the Ferry, ended up wandering around some fields that didn’t look very bridleway-ish!

Is it worth offering the rentcharge owner a few hundred quid to sort it?

That’s basically what I want to do, I’ve asked the solicitor if we can draw up some sort of sale agreement and then present it to them and ask what they want for it. They seemed very reasonable in the correspondence I’ve seen so I think they’ll be open to it, it’s just how long it’s likely to take.

Are you Bristol by any chance?

Manchester, I think there are certain areas where they’re common and they’re basically unknown outside of them – unfortunately our buyer has engaged a solicitor based in Lincoln 🙄

At that point I asked to buy it out, and did so for something like £65 iirc, in order to avoid any hassle when selling. Iirc I was then never asked about it on selling. I’d expect it should be a similar small sum for you but convincing your buyer/their lender I wish you luck.

Thanks, that’s good to know – I think we’ll probably end up doing something similar, it’s just that the rentcharge owner is laid up in hospital just now!

Could be a case of a conveyancing factory (or two) not fully understanding the concept

Possibly, which is why I’d like them to at least speak to another lender – rentcharges are apparently common on some areas like ours and rare in others.

You need a solicitor
They need a solicitor
You need a surveyor
they need a surveyor

Not according to the guy in the department I spoke to, seemed that there are no solicitors or surveyors involved

I am very surprised that an indemnity policy is also not able to cover this type of problem for them, google suggests that there are a lot of them out there.

It is available, but they or the mortgage lender won’t accept it.

As for the freehold rent, is that pure freehold or leasehold rent to freeholder, even though you may own the freehold or share of?

It’s pure freehold, the rentcharge is just a weird hangover from earlier in the 20th century – they’re getting abolished in 2037.

Speak to the buyer direct

I think that’s my next port of call if we don’t get a positive response about buying out the rentcharge from the owner in the next few days. I get that there’s a reason everything goes through lawyers, but IME everything is much simpler when the decision makers just speak directly!

Because when they come to sell they don’t want the hassle you’re going through.

I do understand that, but there is a process where you can fill in one short form and send it to a government department along with the title deed and a copy of the rentcharge deed (which we have) and they’ll get rid of it – the issue is it takes 4-6 months and I can’t see our sellers waiting that long. I’d have done it ages ago if I knew it would be an issue, but as we never even had a rent demand in the 6 years we lived here I didn’t see this coming. Presumably our buyer could just send this in themself once they had completed the purchase.

Does the buyer know that that whole thing could collapse and they could lose the house?

I’ve told the solicitor to pass on the message that we’re only moving because we found the perfect house for us – if we lose it we may not move at all. I don’t entirely understand why they aren’t consulting other lenders, if I was in their shoes that’s what I’d be doing, at least as a backup. I suspect they’re renting somewhere and it has a longer term than is ideal, so a delay will actually benefit them.

Yeah, we’ve offered an indemnity along with a sum to cover any arrears plus future payments but they’re adamant they want it bought out entirely. Just frustrating hearing everything 2nd hand from solicitors, I feel like it would be much easier to resolve things if I could speak directly to the people involved.

We did Van-tofino-Campbell river-Whistler-clearwater-jasper-canmore-kelowna-van this summer over 2.5 weeks. Managed 1 day biking so just hit the park in whistler with a guide / lesson, it was awesome fun and the guide really helped me get the most out of it (and improve my jumping). Felt whistler was probably the best place to do that as there was plenty for the wife to do while I was out. It is basically a ski resort, but in contrast to kittyr’s post we actually had our nicest accommodation there and it was one of the cheapest (airbnb).

I’d also agree / disagree with deserter about banff – the surrounding area is spectacular, but banff itself did nothing for us, its rammed full of tourists and is super expensive. We stayed in Canmore and that was much more our speed.

The best thing we did on our holiday was kayaking in Gowlland harbour (out of campbell river), we half wished we’d done one of the 3 day trips where they take you out looking for orcas and camp on the islands (except we don’t like camping…).

Great work, it’ll be awesome to have that route as an option for most of the year – so many times this summer I’ve given it a miss as the bogs were likely to be bad! Will be interesting to see what the NT do with the section between the cairn and the flags, hopefully they don’t just pave it all.

Thanks, that works!

Thanks Martin, I’ve pieced something similar to that together using other peoples routes from Strava (inc. one of postierich’s 😀).

Stirling, the links not working for me I’m afraid.