What does this even mean? It makes no difference because you say it doesn’t? Yes let’s ignore the reasons why things happen and talk about moral truth.

Why are you so belligerent? Are you really that angry?

🙄 the moral truth is all that matters. The arguments you make are relevant of course but no matter what, individuals have the choice to say no. There is no force, no subliminal advertising, no lack of alternatives. You still have the ultimate say, it’s your responsibility to choose.

So why is it that we are facing an obesity crisis then? Has peoples’ fundamental nature just changed in the last few decades to become much, much greedier and lazier, for no apparent reason?

Or is there perhaps some correlation with the massive rise in consumption of low-quality industrialised food and the vast amounts of money spent on marketing it? Hmmmm I wonder.

It makes no difference. The moral truth is that you still have a choice.

Again, so the huge amounts they spend on advertising (to children especially) serves no purpose then? Wonder why they do it.

Because they know we are all stupid.

This is the kind of cop-out these organisations use whenever they’re pulled up on their advertising/PR practices. If you pump billions of dollars/pounds into persuading people to eat rubbish it’s likely they’ll end up eating rubbish! However it’s their choice isn’t it… …both partners in the interaction have to take some responsibility.

No matter how persuasive the campaign of marketing is, you still have a choice.

Spot on.

Same goes for the litter “generated”. To the best of my knowledge MacDonalds don’t go round the countryside placing burger wrappers in hedgerows.

Time people grew up and took responsibility for their own actions

Exactly. Individuals are responsible for their own waistlines, they are responsible for their own litter, they are responsible for walking into a McDonalds and handing over their money in exchange for a burger. They are responsible for eating that burger.

Corporations, no matter how vast or powerful they may be are not personally responsible for the choices we make as individuals.

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If you look at the clientele of most MacDs, you’ll probably note that many of them are much smaller than most of us, jeans hanging off the arse teenagers actually.

That means very little really.

There may be an alternative if you have time to look but you will pass lots of other options on your quest to eat healthy

So, a good walk and a healthy meal. Win win situation surely.

The Golden Arches are NOT the cause of obesity in the UK. Poor parenting are the main cause of this.

Absolutely. It’s too easy to blame someone/something else.

I’d still like to know what the basis for most people’s objections were. It’s all well and good us debating the rights and wrongs of junk food and the obesity epidemic but I find it hard to believe that was the collective objection to this pub being turned into a Maccy D’s.

Throw out. It’s not yours and is someone else’s.

Cats aren’t owned by anyone. That’s basic.

Haha, I missed most of it. Did his cycling antics get a mention?

Congrats. For me the best bit about a 100miler is lots of food and drink with zero guilt.

If you read my post you’ll find that actually I didn’t end up in the cows arse.

I know but where’s the fun in that.

Leaving everyone else who can get along normally to enjoy the rest of the countryside.

Sounds terribly dull.

My scariest blind-corner moment was nearly parking my bike in the buttocks of a big brown wooly cow* at warp 9 on a night ride, proper quick moooonoeuvre required there to avoid a rather unpleasant decelerative event!

You made your choice, you took your chances, you ended up in a cows arse.

I made my choice to ride as quickly as I could down Fort William, a jogger made a choice to jog up it, with his iPod on whilst staring at his feet.

He broke 3 teeth and I ripped my knee pad.

No ironing, but no puffing out of the chest either. my point was that when I go ‘downhilling’ I ride on the principle of trying to be faster, not to try and go slower hence as far as I am concerned I’m not going fast enough.

Apparently the countryside is for everyone to share
It is, for everyone who is legally allowed to be there. 4×4 probably not.
And certainly no excuse for damaging trails, don’t compare this the walkers on the trail thread, totally different kettle of fish.

Not really.

Unsurprisingly, you mis-read it.

Don’t get too upset about it. Apparently the countryside is for everyone to share, so just exchange pleasantries when you pass them by or be ashamed to be a mountain biker if you do anything otherwise.

Some of the other posters need to have a word with themselves though. That walker coming up the trail could be another, fallen rider. If you can’t see far enough ahead to be able to stop for an obstruction then you are simply going too fast.

Going down the WC course, yeah, I’m going to be going as fast as I possibly can. No such thing as too fast when I’m on my DH bike, just not fast enough.

4X4’s on the DH trails? How are they getting access to them?

Just get hold of 2x two inch high strips of mirror, the same width as your screen. Fix one to the bottom, at a 45 degree angle to the screen, and one just above the screen, at a 45 degree angle towards yourself. Instant periscope, problem solved!

The only thing worth trying IMO.

I don’t get it. 5 mins tops before that gets boring.

I hit a jogger, jogging up the fort bill WC course, earphones in, looking at the ground at 2 in the afternoon.

I hit him so hard he fell to the ground and broke 3 teeth from the impact. I could possibly have avoided him by steering off course but I would have been in a real mess had I done so.

Yeah, I got that one a few days ago. I just replied with the question ‘do you know Special Agent Fox Mulder?’
No reply yet.

I picked and payed for my degree purely because it was something I wanted to study (philosophy).. I didn’t once consider my career options come the end of it…. Lucky really.

Is it wrong to want Moyles to be next?

I wonder what it would be like to live in a caravan and move the family to each new job wherever it was. Maybe get a small house in some remote cheap location just to have a base.

You see, those sorts of ideas have crossed my mind but I rarely mention them to anyone as I convince myself it’s a nonsense idea. But what do you do if you don’t want a big mortgage, you don’t want a high powered, high paying life dominating career and you don’t care about possessions and owning ‘stuff’?

Another vote for Saxondale.
Marion and Geoff is funny and moving in equal measure.

That LRP car looks fantastic, apart from the fact it doesn’t come as kit.

I don’t quite get it why Ready to Run is so popular, as Cougar said the building is the best bit, when I got my Delta 20 years ago I stayed up all night building it.

I agree nick, although I Suspect with a 4 year old on Christmas Day all they will want to do is get out of the box and in the dirt.

Personally I’d opt for this http://www.modelsport.co.uk/lrp-s10-blast-sc-rtr-1-10-short-course-truck-2.4ghz/rc-car-products/368712

Lrp make great cars and have top notch back up for spares through a model shop. The SC truck will bounce around all day long but will track through the rough stuff easier than a monster truck. It’s RTR so includes all you need to get going straight away.

Tamiya are still making great cars but have been lef behind somewhat by smaller manufacturers who have explored new materials and construction methods.

Incidentally, thanks all so far for the words of wisdom and suggestions.

I think both my wife and I agree that money holds little value for us. The problem was when we purchased the house we thought money was the route to happiness so we ended up with a property that although modest, was more than we could comfortably afford.

I think in hindsight buying the house we are in now was a mistake and ultimately it left us in a position whereby we had to do utterly soul destroying jobs just to fund it and also in a position whereby the threat of redundancy terrified us because we would be out on our arse immediately. As a result of that anxiety we attempted to buy happiness by buying ‘stuff’ and thinking that products and hobbies were the route to making all the crap in our lives tolerable. It didn’t.

We have both stripped back over the past 12 months and left ourselves with just the things that we hold dear and enjoy doing together, namely our bikes. It’s nicer just having that and we both fee better for it rather than having multiple cars, motorbikes, big boys toys to fund and maintain but I think actually the house is the on thing I personally would like to get rid of. A big downsize or even something alternative (we once looked at living on a barge because we thought life would be more interesting) might make life better for us both.

We are not greedy so we don’t have desires for anything grand, we’d rather just have time together to go cycling, climbing and walking. We are both lucky in that sense that we have each other and enjoy the same things.

I suppose finding an alternative to a crippling mortgage would change our lives ultimately. We could potentially work less or at least less stressful jobs, spend more time together and at least not have the feeling of doom should our financial situation alter just slightly.

I guess it’s just a case of finding that alternative.

If you sold up – everything – would you have anything left, or would it all have gone paying off the mortgage ?

We’d have something left I think. Not much but about 10-15k.

I work on a social services emergency duty team and meet lots of folk who seem to have chosen an alternative to normal life. Not sure many of these are for me, but if you can’t be arsed to travel and want some low cost alternative options you can do from your own home, drop me a mail

I’m interested. I’ll drop you a mail.

Our alternative is different, we both gave up proper careers to do our own thing, and though we’ll never have enough money to travel the world (and a kid doesn’t help with that) we have a happy life with no debts, no mortgage, nobody telling us what to do. No money either, but money doesn’t make you happy for long.

I think it’s that really. That sums it up for us, but it’s working out how you make that possible. I’d rather have time than money.

Small Mortgage and Big equity with plenty of savings makes things easy, loads of options.

Big Mortgage and Small/Negative Equity and no savings makes things very difficult.

Sadly, the latter part of that statement is true for us, which is both our limiting factor and our desire to change.

Keep life simple by reducing your expectation/consumption.

Forget about those aim high bullcock motto coz they are only meant for some greedy barstewards.

For example, set low target so that you will achieve them without stress. Then depending on how you feel you may set another low target or simply be happy as it is.

I agree entirely with that sentiment, and that is exactly what we are trying to do. We want a richer more rewarding life that isn’t based on endless consumption.

Sounds like you should embrace the festive period and then see what happens in the new year

Touché.