Would not normally identify a mushroom over the internet, but they are Parasols. Stem is too woody, so just eat the cap. Smaller ones are better, but not so small that you can’t identify them! Supposedly excellent egg & breadcrumbed and deep fried – dip in garlic mayo.

Identify them properly first!

I do agree that a good book is essential. I also strongly urge anyone wanting to get started to avoid anything that looks like a regular shop bought mushroom and look instead for types that cannot be confused. Ceps and similar are your best bet by far I’d say. The worst you’ll do is pick a bitter bolete (been there, won’t be doing that again!).

The season continues to go crazy – another bag this morning of ceps, plus chantrelles and a first blewit. I have ceps drying in a very light oven again, several batches of cep paté (delicious and not much more than cooked finely diced ceps and cream cheese), quite a few boxes of cooked mixed mushrooms (ceps and parasols mainly) are already in the freezer for quick risottos – and we still have some for impromptu omelettes etc.

Surrey is booming – at least it is in my spots which I obviously cannot divulge!

On no account pick mushrooms that have gills (i.e. radiating lines under the cap) unless you can identify them. Half a Death Cap will see you off in a painful and protracted way; it just isn’t worth the risk.

Stick to the really obvious to start with is my advice. Or rather, don’t – because them’s my mushrooms.

There is no mistaking a cep at all. No way.

Get a test drive in a Caterham. I absolutely loved mine, which I used as my main car all year round. Mine was a standard tune 1.8 Rover K. It took a very long time before I felt I could use more power. Any Superlight will be bloody exciting I can assure you. An R400 or R500 would be a liability in my opinion.

I wouldn’t bother with an SV – part of the joy is squeezing into it, so unless you’re pretty big the standard shape is best. On the other hand being tall and/or portly will make it extremely difficult even to get in with the hood up. They are ridiculously low – you can put your hand flat on the tarmac without reaching down and they pass straight under most car park barriers. The six speed is essential and huge fun; six speeds in the normal range of four so you can snick up and down the box just for the fun of it.

I really really wish I still had mine!

Stoner – tops marks for the Friday Street pic.

My experience runs only to fairly extensive reading reviews etc – interface, extra features etc all very basic or non-existent on the Colorfly. Build and sound quality are fantastic though, supposedly.

For my own part I decided that additional stuff such as internet services (Spotify, online radio etc) and browsing/video were attractive enough to make me wait until I can get an iPod touch, but if sound quality on my own tracks were number one and only priority I think I’d try the Colorfly.

Check out the Colorfly then Mikey.

Amazon £149, but you can get them for half that.

The truth is not terrorism.

I have been doing a lot of browsing on this subject recently, and the stock answer to this question does indeed seem to be Sansa Clip – v inexpensive, quite tough, small, big capacity, good sound – plus it has a radio (which I would appreciate).

I also ran across Colorfly C3 though, which can be got for £75 ish on ebay import – apparently extremely high quality and certainly a bit different. This one is as-new

Decent set of ‘phones to add to that – Brainwavz R1 are supposedly excellent.

Not that I have any direct experience of any of that, but I have invested/wasted a lot of time looking into and reading between the lines of reviews.

That’s really helpful stuff – thanks all.

There is tinitus caused by damage or disease, usually signified by being present or worse in one ear – and then there is the other kind which is equal in both ears and is effectively your brain telling you there is a hissing noise. I have the latter, and it is friggin’ annoying. No cure except to not be stressed, but that eludes me these days. Music on headphones masks it a bit. :(

Since Froome still had Porte with him I think he was foolish to ride right in Contador’s wheel on that descent – he could have just given him a 10 sec lead and let him fill his boots knowing that the minor loss could be neutralised on the flat run to the finish anyway. I like the instinctive combative style – not giving an inch – but a little bit of wisdom and good judgement is important also. Would love to know what the team were telling him. As it was he was lucky not to catch a puncture or somesuch. It was a risk not worth taking.

Pro tip: if you’ve never raced, don’t get involved.

Oh my God – not even sure I have permission from “RealMan” (compensating much?) but do you know what? I’m going to make a comment anyway.

One feature of this ITT is the ongoing uncertainty in Sky. The pressure is on Froome to take more time because he is possibly going to be very exposed in a few days time. The psychological pressure must be immense – he still has a lot of rivals to watch and that’s not easy, especially if he has an off-day.

Edit: In other words, Sky have very much not got this and still have one hell of a job to do.

Sorry – bit fanciful to imagine that Sky can “hide”. They need to be in front of any crashes and also fully on their guard against a split caused by sidewinds. Froome has got too many challengers to mark on his own so we’d better hope that Sky have recovered well enough to ride hard and keep control.

Etherley Farm puts you right on the slopes of Leith Hill, with Holmbury and Pitch within easy reach too. It is basic, but that does mean you can have a fire (or it did last time I stayed there). No dogs allowed because it is actually a farm – they raise pricey poultry.

Very easy cycle to The Parrot at Forest Green.

Great shame. For all the conspiracies and politics I think it is pretty clear that he wasn’t quite in the top top class, but easily my favourite driver anyway. On the right day really brilliant, and on any day straight talking and likeable.

A politician that argues this is all fine and unfortunately necessary has no credibility at all – make it legal first if it is so innocuous.

…an inflammation in his left knee, which could be due to having too much play in his pedal…

Yea ok. Sure it’s not due to the thought of riding for Froome?

Er. I think “muslims” might very well point out that the West seems never to be happy unless invading somewhere half way across the world. We could just leave them to it, but they got all the oil amnd gas (well, a lot of it) – not only do we want it, we want it at our prices and sold in our currency… and if they don’t like it we’re gonna kill em. Doesn’t sound like a “muslim” problem to me.

Iran has second largest natural gas field in the world, and Iraq has agreed to a pipeline through Iraq to Syria (and world export). Iran is committed to breaking the US dollar grip on oil and gas sales.

Compared to wax, foam earplugs are more or less useless. Quies are the best, in my experience. Boots not too bad, but huge (cut them in half). Quies all the way – get them from independent chemist. You’re only supposed to use them once – that’s carp – I just re-use them until they’re too disgusting.

Warning though – if you fit them really well they completely cut out ambient sound; so much so that it is a bit weird at first.

We got taken off the bus too. None of the local women got off, so I told my gf (now wife) to stay put with them and the chickens. No-one pointed a gun at me though – I would certainly not have been keen on that!

In Honduras the bus conductor chap had a very well used pistol just stuffed in the back pocket of his jeans. People all the time asked us if we were American and completely changed attitude when we confirmed that we weren’t. I met Americans with Canadian flags on their backpacks to try and swerve hostility.

I actually can’t remember what the road was like, thinking about it. we had done quite a bit of bus-ing it by then in old US school buses. We went up through Belize when the border had only been open a few months.

Chichen Itza was ok, but we were in the habit of going on a Sunday when it was half price and there weren’t many (any?) tour groups.

I want to go back…

The nuclear plant is on the other side of the country. Plus, s far as I know, it is quite a new facility and not an ancient re-commissioned one.

Yes but about 20 years ago. There was a tarmac road though.

Fabulous experience – in fact, we loved all of Guatemala.

The overtaker does NOT know where he is going. The line is made up of gaps of 2 seconds or less, typically. There are no safe gaps except those created for him by the good grace of others. If he comes in front my 2 seconds is now less than 1, and he doesn’t have a safe distance either (not that he cares because he probably feels like he has much better reactions/better car/is more of a man). Effectively the selfishness of the line jumper compels everyone behind him to drop back and re-establish safe distances, sending a slowing down wave through the flow of traffic which we are all familiar with from the motorways.

If safety is a priority (and it damn well should be) then taking the flow of the road for what it is is by far the best approach. I do overtake, but I certainly don’t arrive at the back of a line and commence skipping up without even knowing what’s ahead and/or thinking about it.

Exactly. Overtaking without knowing where you are going is dangerous too. If I offer safe refuge by creating a gap behind me what is wrong with that? The only thing wrong with that is the road warrior has to do a little climb-down for a second as I refuse to doff my cap and jump out of his way.

(in relation to weighing up an overtake)

That might explain why molgrips gets overtaken by those dastardly queue jumpers. A good few seconds!? You have to be kidding me? Also, where has anyone even hinted that they base an overtaking decision on a belief that they are a better driver ?
if it takes you that long to weigh up hazards that should have been registered in an instant in conjunction with your ongoing awareness of road and traffic, then you probably should just continue to queue politely!

Just about cements everything I was saying and thinking. People who make snap decisions to barge down a queue of cars are just cocks, basically. Half way down and exposed on the wrong side of the road you suddenly realise that there is a cyclist that you didn’t see before, or another hazard… These drivers remain safe a lot of the time because they rely on the good grace of other road users – if all the road users were of that same selfish mind it would be carnage. The road relies on cooperation, not competition.

You think that having a fast car and being assertive (in your mind) makes you a better driver? It just doesn’t. If you are first to the decision to overtake because you just ignored some of the hazards then you are not a good driver, you are an impulsive selfish driver.

One final thing – if the line-jumper is sure they will find a gap to re-enter the line, and feels that the car in the line whose safe space he has just taken up will then have to drop back and re-create the 2 second gap … how will the overtaker feel if the car in line moves forward and insists that he drop behind and create his own fickin’ gap? Cos basically if I feel you are just forcing your way in front of me I see no reason why you should not be grateful to slot in behind me when I accelerate to make a gap for you there. Why should I create a nice gap in front of me when I can move up and create a space behind me and then I can drop back and re-establish my safe space?

Yep, tinybits, that might happen. One of the many reasons that skipping a line of cars ought to be an exception, not a rule. Too many variables.

Well that’s just semantics, or maybe just me not explaining myself properly – I meant that it is dangerous to assume that the drivers failing to overtake are beneath you/in slower cars/asleep. It may well be the case that there is a really good reason for the line of cars holding station, and it’s just that you as the rear-most vehicle can’t see what the reason is yet.

I agree by the way that if you are going to overtake you need to be decisive – I strongly disagree however with anyone that bases that decision on the belief that they are a better driver than anyone else.

Having a low opinion of other drivers is also a big danger – again; make assumptions at your (and everyone else’s) peril. Half way down that line of cars you might suddenly realise why they aren’t overtaking…

The correct thing to do here is overtake them as well as soon as they pull back in.

Well yea – except for that time when the guy ahead just about manages to get back in and you’re high and dry because the first decent look at the road you got was when he pulled into safety!

Planning an overtake will usually take a good few seconds whilst you weigh up the hazards – a frustrated driver clearly stuck behind a slow moving vehicle is definitely a danger sign because they are likely to be looking to move out and overtake. A line of frustrated drivers even more so.

You need to be certain that the reason you are overtaking is not just that you are prepared to risk it when others aren’t. No matter in what you high regard you hold your road warrior skills and how superior you feel to these other poor sheep on the road it is almost certainly the case that they have made a balanced decision which you should think about. Just assuming they are all muppets and bowling past is very dangerous.

Have you ever waited to overtake a lorry, had someone overtake you, and followed them past the lorry? Or is that a danger explosion?

The (potential) problem there lies in getting a view of the road ahead – you don’t want to follow an overtaking car if he then has the ability to deprive you of a safe place to go.

Actually, at the recommended 2 seconds, he does. He moves into gap, the following car drops back to maintain 2 second gap. It’s hardly rocket science.

OK. And the car behind that one then moves back, and the next, and so-on I assume you mean? So the overtaker relies on all of the other cars to move away from him, rather than him just keeping away from them in the first place? That is precisely how random slowing down of traffic happens, with the wave of slowing cars causing a “thickening” of the flow.

If the space is there to move in to, fine. If you are going to try and manufacture a safe space by forcing your way in and expecting the line of cars rearwards of you to oblige, then not fine.

Surely the nub of it all is: does the overtaker have a safe space to insert themselves into? If the queue is made up of gaps of 2 seconds or less, then he (for it will certainly be a boy) doesn’t.

2 seconds is 2 seconds.

Before you commence overtaking you need to see that you can get to a safe place – inserting yourself forcibly into a one second gap (as it will become) is not that.