yeah they are grim – can’t stand any cakes with that much icing

as mentioned above it’s all about the brownies these days – had one last friday with that biscuit spread stuff in/ on it.

do people like Lillyhammer?

I tried a couple of episodes and found the subtext quite odd. Basically “Swedish society is too liberal and mired in red tape, what we need is more people who are happy to use bribary, violence and blackmail to get things done”

Just didn’t sit right with me – especially as Steve Van Zandt seems like one of the good guys with his anti apartheid work in the 80s etc

The best vinyl I ever found and played? Paul Simon – Hearts and Bones, Donald Fagen – The Nightfly, and Dire Straits – Love Over Gold, Bob Ludwig and Masterdisk the common factor.
He’s still mastering recordings, but not at Masterdisk any more, but he is The Man as far as I’m

I got a copy of the Nightfly for £3 recently – just had a look and my copy is mastered by Bob Ludwig. Can’t remember if holy light came down from heaven when I listened to it or not though. Guess I should have another listen and see

Spoon – new album is just as great as the others

I have an MM cartridge and a MM phone stage

I’ve had more than one cartridge and volume was the same for both so I know it’s not that

As I said though – not an issue really as I have plenty of volume. I’m just curious to see if volume increases with a different phono stage

I’ve never had Grits as such – but apparantly its basically polenta

Grits = US working class food = polenta = uper middle class food

I have an external phone stage – and even with that my turntable is very quiet compared to CD – (ie 1/4 volume for CD is about the same as 3/4 volume for vinyl)

Not an issue really as it’s loud enough (and actually DVDs via the PS3 and the TV are even quieter) – but at some point I will be replacing the phono stage as what I have is rather budget (bought in a hurry when I realised that just because an amp has an output that says “phono” it isn;t necesarily actually a proper phono stage 😳 ). It will be interesting to see if a better phono stage = more volume

yeah american hash browns are nice – is that how you do them then? Just fry raw grated potato?

I love fried mash – but as above I also like buttery/ milky mash but that limits the crispy bits when you fry it up

I like cooking extra boiled/ new type potato. then cut them up into small chunks and then fry up for breakfast with eggs etc. Or even better use them in a corned beef hash – going to have that for tea tonight and breakfast tomorrow!

shame – good actor

He was excellent as a Droog in a Clockwork Orange

It’s a great film – double great if you live in/ know Brighton.

Tenuous claim to fame – I know the person who owned before / sold Nick Cave his house, and I’ve been in the basement flat below the main house which is now Mr Cave’s office and features in the film

More mundane tales of Nick – I have seen NC on the bus, and queuing for ice cream. He once nodded at me on Hove sea front, (i think because my daughters were being quite cute at the time) He is definately the best celebrity in Brighton

as above – stick with it you’ll get the hang of it

tamping is a bad idea

You will work out the best combination of amount of coffee to use/ heat setting on the hob etc

Personally with my 3 cup pot (I drink all of it of course) I fill with water from the tap up to the line, 2 x spoons of beans which i then grind resonablly fine (not as fine as you would for a proper espresso machine, finer than caffitierre or filter). coffee in, no tamping.

On the hob at heat setting 4 out of a possible 6.

I actually prop open the lid with a teaspoon so I can see the coffee coming through and get the pot off the heat as soon as it begins spurting.

Doris5000 – any chance of a link to your music on Spotify/ soundcloud whatever

No worries if you would rather stay annonymous – if I like your music I promise to buy some 🙂

if you choose to rent music instead of buying it then this is bound to happen

I straighten mine with an adjustable spanner – worth cleaning the spanner jaws with white spirit or similar first to avoid contaminating the rotor

If you have a smartphone you don;t need to buy a tuner – just get one of the many tuner apps (although you should learn to do it by ear too as it’s a good skill to have, use the tuner to tune the low E string then try and tune the rest by ear relative to the low E. you can then use the tuner to check how well you did)

quiz doesn;t really work for me – I’m divorced with 3 kids who live with me 3x days a week.

If I say I have no kids living with me (as they live with their mum the majority of the tme) then I’m richy rich

If I say I have 3x kids living at home then I’m fairly poor

Joe Murray came along on our weekly night ride once

I hear he was pretty good in his day

I’ve got bags of various sizes from Chrome, Crumpler and Timbuk 2

The Chrome is my main bag, used it day in and day out for about 8 years. It’s way ahead of the others when it comes to quality and strength. It’s 100% waterproof too which can’t be said for the others

It’s just a single big compartment, one smallish zip up pocket and another open pocket thing – so not for you if you want lots of compartments, laptop sleeves etc

I only use one if absolutely necessary (big loops with limited access to water, or riding with the kids and need to carry extra food and clothes for them)

Otherwise , bottle on frame. Spare tube strapped to frame. Pump and patches/ spate chain links / multi tool phone food etc in jersey pockets

It’s an odd choice to release as a single for radio play maybe, but I’m not sure it would sound that out of place on “Low” or “Lodger”

I remember when ck1 first came out in the early 90s. It seemed like everyone was wearing it (including me). You couldn’t walk more than a few hundred yards without getting a whiff of it from a girl or boy

*Brighton pedant*

For retro jerseys, piercings etc you want the North Laine, the Lanes is mainly antique and jewellery shops

That is an excellent solution PP – where did those metal bits come from?

yeah – mine is one of the old old original ones. Guess I’ll just continue with my rattly bodgy guards

the front is fine

But the rear – there is no chainstay brace to connect the bottom of the guard to – I ended up bodging something together using zip ties
And there is no “proper” place to attach the guard around the seatstays – the guard ends up miles away from the wheel which is not satisfying

I also have the SKS guards

I could be missing something obvious and fundamental – but I can’t see what

EDIT – I’m using Vs so no issues with calipers/ holes

do you have a newer roadrat or one of the original ones? if you have an original one please tell me the brand of guards you used and send photos 🙂

I’ll raise you fitting any mudguards to a cotic roadrat (1st gen, cant comment on the newer ones)

For a bike of it’s type you would think it would be possible to fit guards without resorting to quite so much bodging

If it was just about Lisa Bonet then it would be Angel Heart I would be watching 🙂

My favourite bit is when Guns and Roses are playing on the soundtrack (is it Live and Let Die?) and he goes into the mini mart thing where his house used to be – and the same song is now playing in the background in Musak form

Cusack is in the new David Cronenberg film – saw the ad and it looks pretty good

JC has been in some awful films over the years (read an interview with him the other day where he was pretty honest about it)- but he’s an actor I always enjoy. My favorites

The Sure Thing (so so good)
Say Anything
Grosse Point Blank
The Grifters
High Fidelity (I know it’s not the best film ever made or anything but I seem to be able to watch this one endlessly)
Being John Malkovich
and of course the mighty Con Air 🙂

He has previous for singing stupid songs at Tory party confrences

Guess he’s decided they aren’t reactionary enough for him

look at the list of INFPs 🙂

result of the named individual taking a personality type inventory.
Isabel Myers[14]
Diana, Princess of Wales (who reportedly self-identified as an INFP)[15]
Fyodor Dostoyevsky[16]
Albert Camus[17]
Frank Lloyd Wright[18]
J.R.R. Tolkien[18]
Edgar Allan Poe[18]
William Blake[18]
John Lennon[18]
Jim Morrison[18]
Kurt Cobain[18]
Ian Curtis[18]
Tim Burton[18]
Johnny Depp[18]
Björk[18]
David Lynch[18]
Lisa Kudrow[19]
Jim Henson[20]

I am also an INFP – took the test with work years ago.

All the different personality types had stick man drawings to illustrate them.

INFP was shown lying in a hamock, day dreaming about pots of gold. Which sums me up pretty well.

All the introverts – I recommend you read the book Quiet by Susan Cain to understand yourself and how you fit into the world a bit bettter

I have a dropper post for my solaris – but I only use it on trips away. On my local trails I would rather keep things simple and stick with a nice light carbon post

re fork length – I’m actually considering going the other way. I currently have some 120mm x-fusion slides, but want to try some SIDs and think I might get 100mm ones.

I’m actually considering having 2x “builds” for my solaris – XC/ local (crests, rockst rons, 100mm SIDs, carbon post) and “Trips away to rockier places” (Flows, tougher tyres, 120mm forks and dropper post)

actually just checked on Merlin

spec suggests the rear comes as an IS mount – it’s an adapter though not IS specific

I have an IS mount on the rear – I can’t remember where I got it to be honest but don’t remember having any trouble getting one

no doubt the r1 are lighter – but (on Merlin anyway) they are £200 an end vs £150 for front and rear on the RX

I went with these

http://www.merlincycles.com/formula-rx-disc-brakes-front-rear-set-53114.html

Not quite as light as the R1 but still a good weight, amazing price

I have had no issues at all with the rotors – they’ve been fantastic so far

EDIT – weight on merlin is including rotors, think they are around 240/250g an end without rotors

the worst I ever saw was a Fish/ Shark related one (not finding Nemo) featuring Will Smith voicing the hero. Involved an underwater car wash

All the jokes were aimed at adults – e.g. gangster sharks voiced by De Niro and Martin Scorcese. There was nothing for the kids at all – just lazy cultural references aimed at adults

I’ve only seen it once so I’m no expert

But it seemed like a well written/ crafted film to me – don’t get why some think the writing is shoddy

I’ve seen plenty of badly written kids films and Frozen isn’t one of them