Follow your nose, to me is one big pointer to it being Gandalf

This was a dead giveaway. Or was it just another fake out?

Here, what about the Sauron cultists as the fabled blue wizards?

“guess the Sauron” character

Bit late for that!

Well, that was a bit better. I think I was relieved that they stopped teasing us and went for at least a bit of a reveal. I had my doubts about Halbrand all along, but as soon as he said “consider it a gift”, the game was up.
Still not sure who the Istar is. Was it confirmed Gandalf, or just heavily hinted?

what about the remaining 17 rings?

Didn’t Sauron make and gift those himself? But, the canon is all over the place here, didn’t the 3 rings get made to oppose the one ring? Can’t really remember.

The “boat people” are Numenorean, who are the people that founded Gondor. Elendil and Isildur are both amongst them, who might have been mentioned once or twice in the books and films…
I need to get out more too…

It erodes the gravitas and epic fantasy of the source material and its own credibility.

This.
I disengaged my Tolkien geek episodes ago and have just been trying to enjoy it for what it is. Theres just too many liberties being taken. I happened to watch The Fellowship of the Ring over the weekend, and I realised what it is. Theres absolutely no sense of the depth of history and story in this that Jackson managed to capture in his trilogy.

You could get started with goblet squats, pretty challenging with as little as 25kg to get depth and form.

I’ve replaced Back Squats with Landmine Squats while my back heals (a variation of Goblet Squats).
I may not go back to traditional squats after this!

Thisisnotaspoon has it.

If you want to work on getting stronger, don’t mess about, join a gym, learn how to lift.
I’m assuming you ride regularly, as you post here, you said you run, sounds like you are probably doing enough cardio as is.

Join a gym, learn how to lift heavy things safely, set aside some time to lift those heavy things 2 or 3 times a week.

Full disclosure: I’m 3 weeks out from tweaking my back Deadlifting with a hex bar, so have avoided any hinging lifts and Back Squats since.
I also may not go back to Deadlifts and Back Squats, as I’m quite enjoying the lack of lower back stiffness in the last week or so.

After episode 3, it doesn’t look like there’s any point trying to pin things down to a particular point in time in the published works.

Sauron hasn’t revealed himself and the rings haven’t been forged, that puts it around SA1000.
But Miriel is Queen of Numenor, which has been closed to elves for generations. That would put it around SA3200.

That said, I did enjoy it.

Difficult to say at the moment, not many clues as to where in the second age we are

Eregion exists, Moria looks to be at its height, Sauron is nowhere to be seen and Mordor still seems to be fertile and settled by humans, so somewhere between SA 750 and 1000, I reckon.

http://lotrproject.com/timeline

I’m partly ashamed to admit, Tolkien geekery is one of my favourite things. Let me just pull up a chair and get comfy…

I was worried that the non-canon stuff they’ve added would annoy me, but after watching the first 2 episodes, not so much. Galadriel the Warrior Queen is going to get annoying, as it seems so far beyond the character as originally written. Not sure why they couldn’t just have written an original character for that role, as they’ve created so many original characters elsewhere, but we’ll see how it goes.
Weirdly, I think having played the Middle-Earth RPG stuff years ago has prepped me to be more accepting of non-canon stuff. Tolkien left loads of blank space for writers to play around in. So I’ve gone from being “oh god, this could be terrible” to “actually, that wasn’t so bad” in the space of 2 episodes.

Could it be Tom Bombadil?

Nah. The implication was that he was something special, who had always existed, not a creation of the in-universe god. I think they are trying to fake us out with this guy. I think they are trying to make us think it’s Gandalf or Saruman, though the bit with the fireflies is very Radagast. But the wizards were sent much later in order to be Sauron’s adversaries, so if that’s one of them, then my worries over the mangling of the canon get turned up a notch.
I reckon he’ll turn out to be Sauron, who still had physical form in the 2nd age. Or some newly created original character.

Love my Dave to bits. So much so, I have a Loco Moto frame coming for my birthday.
5 11 on a L Dave, and it feels perfect.
Careful with Dave/Loco Moto direct comparisons though, although the geo of the Dave and the Loco Moto is virtually identical, they have changed the sizing. L Dave = M Loco Moto.

I haven’t noticed any problems. I’ve had 2 or 3 NX setups now, and have found them the easiest setup of any that I’ve used, smooth in use and pretty resilient. No snapped chains either, which obviously means I’m going to snap my chain next time out, doesn’t it?

I ran the previous version in the DH Ultimate version and really liked it as a front tyre, punctured it on Newtyle Hill (Dunkeld) but it’s pretty rocky and I was racing.

I think I inherited that very tyre off you. Stuck it on the back of the Dave when I built it, and it was fine. I never noticed it at all, which is pretty much what I look for in a rear tyre.

Oswald St NCP. It has an exit on the 2nd floor that comes out into the station

It’s creeping into my garden from my neighbour, who’s garden is overrun with the stuff.
I read somewhere that if you crush or bruise, but not break the plants, weedkiller can be effective, which is what I’ve been doing, though I did notice some new growth prior to the first cut this year.

How are you all getting on with your Dave’s?

Love it!
I’ve got a big birthday coming up and was toying with the idea of switching to a Moxie, but after trying one out, I realised just exactly how much I love the Dave. It’s almost perfect for what/where I ride.

It’s a surprisingly fun bike, innit?
I mulleted mine with a plus tyre this weekend. Great fun.

planning on a ride on Wednesday evening

Not a huge amount of time then. Cathkin would probably be a reasonable way to spend an evening. Everythings easy to find, so you aren’t wasting time trying to find the natural trails up the Kilpatricks or whatever.
If I wasn’t loaded with the cold I’d have offered to guide you up the Kilpatrick Hills trails. Ah well.

I’m feeling a bit bereft nowadays. I’d always described myself as a martial artist, having trained consistently in various things since the mid 90’s. Covid, a knee problem and arthritis has called time on it all though.
I started off in Shotokan Karate, which was gradually replaced with Muay Thai (which has given me my arthritic left foot). That was replaced with Judo, which I did for about 10 years (and has left me with arthritis in my other foot, from stubbing toes on mats and kicking ankles instead of sweeping). I really enjoyed grappling, so I was always going to end up doing BJJ. Did a bit in the gi for a while with Marcos Nardini, but trained much more no-gi, getting to purple with a 10th Planet gym. Covid brought that to a halt.

I do miss it all a bit. Not sure that going back to jits is a good idea: as a 50 year-old, out of practice purple belt with knee problems, I’d just be a walking target for the white and blue belts that think they have something to prove. I’m toying wiht the idea of something like Krav, but there seems to be a lot of dross.

This is why I use blue Gis!

Where are you training Bob?

Back when I trained in a gi, they got the hottest wash my washing machine could do regularly.
Not every time, maybe once every 4 washes, it’d go in at the 90 degree cycle.
Seemed to do the trick.
I sometimes used white vinegar too, which helped with stuff that couldn’t be boil washed (rashguards and the like). That really helped with the worn in stank you get with man made fibres.

Also, get the thing out of the bag and into a wash straight away. Letting them fester in your gym bag doesn’t help.

Thanks for the replies. Looking more for countryside location than city.

South of the river then. Everywhere north of the river, within your criteria can be hellish for traffic. Either 1 road in and out (Dumbarton and everything west of it. Lennoxtown/Blanefield etc too.) Or just busy (Milngavie and Bearsden)

What about Houston, Bridge of Weir or Langbank? My commute (when I did it) takes me in that direction and it’s the easisest commute I’ve ever done. For context, I live in Clydebank, and have somehow survived, which might surprise some of the posters on here.

Drum-chap-pell of course! I’ve heard it’s now an upcoming area and a few stops on the bus fae the Bankies 🤪

It’s surely only a matter of time before the westward march of gentrification reaches the Drum. I’ve got high hopes for Dalmuir being a cultural hotpsot soon…

Clydebank.
Traffic in and out of Clydebank can be a bit of a bastard at peak times.

I rarely post here, and don’t know you, but your post has genuinely moved me to reply.
My Dad died last year, after going downhill shockingly quickly with vascular dementia.
I don’t have anything other than platitudes to add mate, but I am thinking of you. Its brutal.

Look after yourself.

David

Just buy a Hello Dave.
I snapped up a frame in PX’s sale about a year ago, finally got the build finished in February. Going by geometry numbers, it has no right to be as good as it is. It’s great fun. A hooligan of a bike.
It’s so good that it’s now my only bike, having sold my FS enduro bike through lack of use.

I recently bought a Lamy AL Star to replace it.

From Cult Pens? I got one of those from them recently too. Had gone on to get a safari and that very pen was a tenner.

I like the Kaweco Sport too. Lovely wee thing. I’m lusting after the brass version.

Yip, combine the two. Out on the cycle path to Old Kilpatrick, up the Humphrey Road, take the John Muir Way over towards Kilmann Reservoir, over to Carbeth, through Mugdock, down to Milngavie, Allander Water then Kelvin Way back to the city centre or wherever.

Aye, theres loads of good new gravel roads up behind the Jaw/Cochno Loch, around Burncrooks and Kilmannan.
Had a cracking big day oot pedal out and back that way to the trails around where Flux used to be early in the Summer. Was great fun.
I hadn’t even considered the John Muir Way stuff either. Loads of options.

Looks lovely. So tempted, but its a shame they stopped doing them in that blue.

Ride your bike from the city centre to Old Kilpatrick (12 miles or so on cycle path), ride up the big gravel road there and explore the Kilpatrick hills.
Similarly, you can ride north to Milngavie from the city centre easy enough and explore the Mugdock area. Theres some decent gravel mashups to be had between Mugdock and the Kilpatrick Hills too.

Looks like all the Scottish STW community had the same initial reaction!

Nobeerinthefridge
Member
There was a local facebook group here too, started off pretty good, lots of old pics of town, the old airport, folks memories etc.

Rapidly developed into Gypsy watch, dog shit watch and any other moan they could think of. Best avoided.

I’ve been in a few, and they all seem to devolve the same way.

Anyone gone down the Solovair route? I’d miss the yellow stitching.

Thinking about it.
I was in the Glasgow Dr Martens shop at the weekend to have a look at the made in England 1490s in the flesh. You can see the differences, when you compare the made in England boots next to the imported ones.
I’m torn between a pair of Solovairs, or MiE DMs, as they are the same price. Leaning towards Solovair as they are a wee company, rather than the international concern that DMs are now.

Fox TV have a version coming out soon:
https://www.foxtv.co.uk/special/war-of-the-worlds

I’m not a huge fan of war novels, I prefer non fiction, but I’ve read and absolutely love The Cruel Sea, so it gets a plug off me.

As someone else said, give Beevor another go. The First World War and The Second World War are excellent, and Stalingrad and Berlin are required reading for me. The events described in Berlin read like old testament, wrath of god type of stuff. Eye opening.

I read Bloodlands and Black Earth by Timothy Snyder in the last year. Both excellent, dealing with the twin effects of Soviet and then Nazi occupation and atrocities on the unfortunate people of central and eastern Europe. Very well done, but be warned, grim and depressing.

Have a look at these:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cyber-essentials-scheme-overview
https://www.cyberessentials.ncsc.gov.uk/

You can self assess for the basic Cyber Essentials. Might be worth doing to highlight exactly the risk your boss is accepting.

For £5k you can get the base model Levo

Sweet Jesus, thats eye watering!

That Alistair Majury isn’t this guy, is it?
https://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/15294228.Two_new_Tory_councillors_suspended_over_cannibalism_and_anti_Catholic_tweet_claims/?ref=twtrec

Wonder how his sectarianism awareness training went!

Is Strava heatmap still a thing? You might see activity on your property on that. You could then have a look on Strava for nearby segments and may, with luck, be able to see from recent ride who it might be
Assuming they are a Strava user, of course.

It all sounds a bit trespassy. Any mileage in speaking to the Police?

Been doing it a good while now. Nogi only, after years of Judo left my fingers in a pretty crap state.
I totally agree with the accessibility of top competitors in it. We had Craig jones at our gym not long ago, which is like having Messi turn up to your regular 5’s game.

I’ve logged into the forum for the first time in years, merely to say, Dementia is an absolute ****. Sorry, not sorry about the language. It just is.

Alzheimers Scotland have been great, if you are in Scotland, give them a shout. The general NHS and LA Social Work services have been less so.

My Dad is 70 and was diagnosed with generic “dementia” a couple of years ago, but we realise now that a decline had been ongoing for a few years prior to that. Made worse by his diabetes, which is fairly common. The speed with which he deteriorated from living independantly, if absent mindedly, on his own, to having to live in a nursing home with 24 hour care is terrifying, whenever I get a minute to stop and think about it. Luckily (unluckily?) I’ve just been granted Guardianship, so I don’t really get much time to think about it!

As we keep getting told, Dementia is progressive and theres not a huge amount can be done to treat it. Deal with what you can now, while you can: POA is FAR easier to deal with than Guardianship, for example.
For me, it was best not sugar coating anything. I think it was best for me to accept the reality and do what needs to be done.

Good luck to you both.