Seems crazy that most policies cover the bike if locked to the bike rack that is locked to the car, provided the locks/chains are good enough, but not inside the car.

Although they are lovely I also find raw cashews, and brazil nuts, almost as good and they have the advantage of not having all the extra ‘bad’ stuff – decently priced at Asda on mix and match :-)

Oh, and ANYTHING from JLR – make sure you’ve got £10k spare for a **** transmission or engine. I’d doubly not touch one with a barge pole.

or an EV it seems – Renault wanting £11k to fix a radiator because the battery has to be removed, anything involving the slightest damage to an area near the batteries might need a new battery pack which can be more than the new cost of the car (few cases of this with Ionic 5s in the US and Canada).

I don’t think there was just one reason.

From the gov.wales site :

We made this change to:

– reduce the number of collisions and severe injuries from them (also reducing the impact on the NHS from treating the people who are injured)
– encourage more people to walk and cycle in our communities
– help to improve our health and well-being
– make our streets safer
– safeguard the environment for future generations.

No mention of traffic flow but lots for safety or safety related (encourage people to walk and cycle more)

There’s also money being spent on ‘active travel’ routes to encourage people to cycle to work more, for example. One of the routes goes through PontyPridd park (think that might be part of the Taff Trail), which is locked up at some stupid early hour, so not really an encouragement to use it for commuting – although in reality it probablky OK as people seem to work as few hours as possoble here and ‘rush hour’ seems to start about 4pm.

As Top Secret has been mentioned :

The Big Bus

Fatal Instinct

If you can get your head round it, lower speed limits means traffic flows better.

which wasn’t the reason for implementing the speed change, safety was. All the studies justifying it were based on safety, not traffic flow, for which it is debateable, as are the suppossed savings from the increase in safety (according to my GP friend).

If you get some mke sure that they’ve also got the extra lens for covering your blindspot…

Was down in South Wales at Easter, 20 did seem a bit slow on some rural roads through villages. In Cardiff it generally felt OK

Always seems the other way round to me – lots of wide roads in Cardiff. and the surrounding areas with little chance of an unseen person emerging from behind a parked car or kids playing on the street – 20 just seems like a speed trap – whereas up in the valleys with narrow roads going through towns and villages and lots of cars parked on the road side, the 20mph limit seems much more appropriate. And there are some places still at 40mph through narrow street villages that should be 20mph but aren’t because they weren’t 30mph in the first place so escaped the change.

What it needs is someone sensible from the institute of andvanced motorists or similar, to drive round the Welsh roads noting which sections have inapproproate limits, and then getting exceptions raised for them.

Have you seen the prices of new cars ? Even crap cars new these these days are £30k plus with a range of about 100 miles.

New Dacia Diusters start at £17300 !

Apart from the interior plastics (everyone seems to comment on them) user reviews of Dusters seem pretty good, and it is also pretty capable offroad, in comparison to many cars that that style themselves in that manner.

I can only say that the shots my Canon GX9 mk11 take seem better than my iphone 13 mini…

CYC Photon here – several places sell them, one advertises the UK legal one but CYC make available the EU legal firmware as a download if you buy from elsewhere.

Nice motor and very nice torque sensing.

Some people have had overheating or other issues caused by overheating, but they run them unrestricted (it’s a 750W motor then) and with a throttle, so there is no way the UK legal version should have those issues.

Got my motor from Paradise Cycles and a battery from BesBikes.

Technically a throttle is OK on a conversion kit as long as the 15.5mph and 250W limits are still met (unless there has been some change since 2014) I haven’t seen.

If you have a reasonable time left to retire then a global equity fund is probably the best option – note that the PensionCraft guy and also the Damien talks money guy have both discussed this and the risks involved in fund choice and they both have their main portfolio in global funds – as they have no more of an idea about what is going to happen than anyone else.

It’s the same with IFAs, they’ve got little idea as well and often it’s often worse than that as they think that they do. History showed that bonds were going to be a bad place to be with rising interest rates (even ignoring Truss) yet none of the usual YT finance channels pointed this out.

£350 this month, £50k invested

That SwissStop brake silencer works pretty well :

https://www.swissstop.ch/silencer/

I found my powerful jigsaw massager useful for helping with my knee pain – firstly because I could run it over my good leg and then over my bad leg and look for any differences in how the muscles felt in response to the powerful vibrations.

For me I found that I had a painful area on the back of the leg behind the knee – when I went to the physio I was able to point this out – although he bloody mindedly avoided looking at it for a couple of sessions (because he hadn’t found it?) but insisted on going through a fairly standard set of stretches, etc to address my inflexibility, until I insisted he investigate that area, which he then admitted it was a problem and he started work on it. Niggly knee pain then went.

take a few readings at a time as well as they vary – the collar might settle after the first use – I don’t know.

I was considering one that records to an app but because of the variance in readings I thought I’d just check the average every now and again, so just got a standard Omron.

And take your readings before your morning coffee otherwise you might think you are on your way to hypertension.

Never buying Nilfisk again as it was tempermental to the point of invoking desires to take the sledge hammer to it.

Bought the 150bar Titan from Screwfix when on offer and it’s taken some heavy abuse cleaning up the mess left when I had some rendering done on the side of the house.

Swapped out 4 Goodyear eagle asymmetrics for 4 Goodyear vector 4seasons gen 3 a few months ago as my front eagles needed replacing, plus I felt uneasy at how the eagles ‘clunk’ about when the roads get cold, then looking at the reviews noticed how terrible the performance tyres were for braking in the cold and wet.

Although the eagles are a phenomenal tyre I actually prefer the vectors on my cloverleaf Alfa giullietta, maybe because that car has fairly poor steering feel for an Alfa and the vectors provide more ‘feel’ through them having less vice-like grip – although I am not talking about driving at any more than road legal speeds here. I haven’t spent time working out the best pressures for them yet and are just using the same pressures I used for the eagles, so maybe they are also fractionally high.

Wikivorce:

https://divorce.wikivorce.com/

shame that she has got a solicitor – first step towards a cr8p experience.

I used wikivorce – you build a list of all assets and how long together, etc, and then they (the chosen solicitor service) come up with an appropriate split – if you two keep everything transparent with disclosure to them, and then adjust the outcome amicably then the whole process will be much less painful. As soon as each side has a solicitor it becomes war with lots of miscommunication making things worse, plus the solicitors getting a lot of the assets in monetary form.

The wikivorce solicitor will also advise on whether the split of assets you finally decide on looks ‘fair’, as this is what a judge will be looking at. An agreed upon split might not be ‘fair’ if one party has undue influence on the outcome.

I met with a mediator and they seemed pretty useless to me – the mediator won’t give you any advice on whether any agreed upon split of assets is ‘fair’, and so you have more risk that the judge won’t like it.

There are also forums to ask for advice.

Talk to your wife, see if she will go down this more amicable and less confrontation route, better for everyone – less anger, less money paid to solicitors – just suck up any of your anger and approach the matter in a calm a manner as you can.

All these Ford references, Ford have made some pretty outstanding cars in the past – I’d argue that their catalogue of outstanding cars beats BMW – my mate has had quite a few BMWs which I thought were pretty poor.

Try this :

I’ve got a proper blade tool now – I used a powerful massage tool which gave relief but not complete – doing is technique worked very well. Look up Graston technique as well. Tried straps and therabands but not really effective for me. Alsp tried a rice bucket.

If your physio suggested injections then try finding a decent physio…

I tried it in a glass of milk but it just gave me wind like I had had a curry the night before.

But as long as you don’t have something contaminated and it’s affordable but gives you a placebo effect, then it is worth it anyway.

I genuinely admire Diane Abbot, I’ve met her and she’s bloody smart and funny,

think I must have seen a different Dianne Abbott on TV, the one that adopts the constantly condescending tone and attitude when talking to people and makes a fair number of rascist comments herself.

Is it some sort of virtue signalling to admire her ?

It would be interesting to know the carbon footprint of a days uplift at BPW !

People can be “trusted”

All people – that’s pretty naive – a minority of people can be trusted might be more accurate.

I’ve bought 3 of these :

I bought some as presentsd althouogh got them back as the receiver didn’t like the heavy effect.

I initially did but not so sure at the moment, still use one as a snuggler on the sofa.

Washing/drying is an issue because of the weight – don’t want to tax the washing machine and tumble dryer too much – so I wash the inner in the bath by hand, squeeze as much water out as possible, suck some more out with a George hoover, then put on a rack with a dehumidifier working it’s drying magic.

If used over a duvet at night then a wool duvet is preferable because of their heat regulation – I would imagine that a down duvet would be more uncomfortable.

A heavy wool duvet wouldn’t be the same.

I bought some Philips EasyReach clippers at the start of covid

but soon changed to some Wahl Senior clippers that I have been using ever since, still cutting my own hair.

Also bought a cutting guide for the back of my head for ease of use.

A non-glossy screen for me.

15 inch screen minimum, but 4k is not really needed at that size as you will scale it up anyway.

Probably a decent warranty as fixing a laptop is not as easy as a desktop.

The faster processor and the most memory (if it is not upgradable) will ensure the laptop remains useful for as long as possible.

With intel based machines an fancy graphics are only really used in specialised programs, normal stuff uses the built in on-board graphics.

I always buy refurbished form places like europc.co.uk

Garmins sleep tracking is pretty poor so this obviously affects the other metrics – obviously there is that quantified scientist guy on youtube that thinks it is poor but if you also google you will find an awful lot of comments and complaints about it.

If you are on Octopus then you can use the app to reduce your DD payents until you have depleted your credit and then adjust your DD payments to a low amount that enough for summer coverage, whilst putting the extra that they suggested in their calculator into your own ‘energy’ account that pays interest.

Then in the winter use the app to make top up payments as required.

If you have solar then also put the solar payments into your ‘energy’ account ready for making the winter top up payments.

I’ve had tingling fingers, tennis elbow, golfers elbow, trigger finger, pain at the back of my arm, and also a funny bone sensation at the back of my elbow when touching my elbow pads, all in the last two years.

Before doing anything rash like an op go and see a, or several in case you can’t find a good one, massage therapist, or similair, to see if they can find any problems associated with trigger points – I had several issues including one in my pec minor, and treating them all provided relief.

I think the root cause might be something in my neck affecting that median nerve.

if trying on fins iit’s useful to shave the hair from the top of your foot, if there is any. Seems stupid but it just makes judging the fit better as if you leave any hairs there then the rubber of the fins will pull on any hairs that are there as you put them on and you will think they are tighter than they really are.

A mask with as big a lens as possible and clear surrounds as the clear surrounds do let you see objects a bit so better for sensing when you are about to swim into something that is floating on the surface, like a jelly fish…

Loads of people will offer advice at a golf range – it’s that type of game. Sometimes it might be unwanted, a lot of the time it might be appreciated as the golfer might be unaware of a glaring fault – with golf what you feel you are doing is often very unlike what you are actually physically doing.

I’ve even pointed a fault out to a famous pro (Ronan Rafferty) because the range pro standing next to him didn’t seem to want to point it out :-)

And her yoga pants aren’t anything to note – they are very minor compared to what little most female golf influencers wear to get views.

Helly Hansen are all over the place with sizing so it’s difficult to say – make sure you have a good returns policy and order multiple sizes

Decent article, also discusses life styling/target date pensions:

https://moneyweek.com/personal-finance/pensions/what-pension-providers-dont-tell-you-about-your-retirement-money?utm_term=56E7D18C-01E1-43DF-850E-8F81D0BDA7FC&lrh=48a3e133cf9c84de048dfc6d6eb2829f4fb04f1021c3ca32ce2eb1d04e8ff1dd&utm_campaign=3854FBCB-FE1F-457E-9C9A-87C5805A0127&utm_medium=email&utm_content=8963F0BC-F945-4FAD-AF36-03B0D652B1AA&utm_source=SmartBrief

Many years ago I went on a dirt cheap ski holiday by coach

skimeribel maybe – I’ve done snowcoach.co.uk and skiweekends.co.uk but they are not bunks. skiweekends went through the tunnel, snowcoach by ferry which wasn’t as good.

Did you also forsee the threat to company pensions resulting from market loss of confidence following the truss/kwarteng debacle – and say nothing about that either?

After reading various books and articles on investing, and the Meb books, I haven’t touched long term bonds, including the 60/40 portfolio. Several things make me uneasy about them, including the amount of US debt held by other countries such as China.

And just considering how yield curves work and that inflation looked a certainty after the fiscal manipulation of QE, particularly during COVID, plus the energy crisis of the Ukraine war (the Truss debacle was just an extra event on top of that) made long term bond investing look precarious. I’d read two Bolgleheads books on it as well.

I have made comment on lots of YT videos from creators, including PensionCraft, banging on about the negative correlation between bonds and equities and how it doesn’t always hold up. I was a bit shocked when one of the top Vanguard pension professionals said that this correlation being broken was an outlier and would return soon, as if you look at history it certainly isn’t an outlier.

The correlation between stock and bond prices has changed over time, with a positive correlation (where their prices move in the same direction) being more persistent in the 20th century. However, beginning in about 1998 and lasting through 2019, the correlation was negative. When bonds performed well, stocks underperformed, and when bonds performed poorly, stocks did well.

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/fundamental-analysis/09/intermarket-relations.asp

The target retirement date funds change your equity bond balance as you get older, in order to ‘derisk’ your portfolio, so anybody close to retirement is going to have a high percentage of bonds.

However there are arguments that a higher percentage of equities in your portfolio is going to be more successful for retirement, search PensionCrafts YT videos for arguments about that, or read “Living Off Your Money” by Michael McClung.

Basically you need a global equity fund as a core – PensionCraft has some decent videos on this:

there are other options but notice that this video maker studies these funds a lot but admits that he just uses a global equity fund for his core.

https://www.youtube.com/@Pensioncraft/videos

Meb Faber has some great books on investing which are free and quite short, so an easy read. Worth reading.

Books By Meb Faber

He has some others that are cheaply available as well.

He did note that using momentum and looking at the 10 month simple moving average price of the S&P 500 as a trigger as wehn to buy and sell actually gave better results than just holding the S&P, but them again the sell in may and buy back after Halloween strategy also beats just holding.

If you want to open a SIPP, Vanguard target retirement date funds are easy to open and require no input from you

there’s lots of people with these that are cursing them as they had a simplistic view of bonds and it’s cost them a lot as long term bond prices crashed so much recently, particularly as they had been switched to a higher bond allocation now they were near retirement.

It was well known that bond prices suffer in high inflation environments and also that the negative correlation between bonds and equities is not a constant relationship (far from it) and doesn’t hold in high inflation environments (lots of history to look at), but these ‘clever’ funds, and companies, take no account of that, even when you could see the inflation coming.