A few of my favourites:

Tadao Ando, Church of Light

Tadao Ando, Church on the water

And of course, Chapel of Nôtre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp

For the last couple of days I’ve been waiting to see what’s happening with my current account, as on 16 March one test withdrawal for £1 followed very rapidly by another for £1282.95. Apparently it’s in clearing and bank have to let it go through to track. I haven’t used CRC during the period identified above, but have a lot towards the end of last year – so maybe details harvested then?

If it’s not CRC, suspect Merlin or Bike24 or just an amazing coincidence?

I shall be more careful in future!

I ride up it fairly regularly on my mmmBop, albeit fairly slowly! It is the first part of a great circular route I like to do, which once you get to the top and through the farm is mainly off-road.

Still plenty of stuff at Shining Cliff Woods, also around Black Rocks.

North and West of Matlock you have Sandy Woods, Seventy Acre Plantation and around Beeley Moor, as well as Chatsworth routes…

I asked CRC to price match Merlin over the weekend hoping they might get round to it to enable me to use the voucher before it expired. As this didn’t happen I decided to order from Merlin and got a further 10% of the price match, with the VIP discount club.

Ordered late Monday evening, delivered this morning – happy customer

Aside from puddings,another highlight is the Matlock Bath Balti, one of the best Indian Restaurants in the UK…

Have we persuaded lexiekay yet?

Fantastic, live in Matlock, work in Sheffield, drive through Chatsworth estate everyday and never get tired of it. Active local club, and bike shop, Stanley Fearns. Great central location for getting out on the bike, either straight from door or short drive.

Moved up here in 2002 after 10 odd years in London and growing up in Hampshire, decided it’s a good place for daughter to grow up and so far wouldn’t move back.

Downsides, it rains a lot and bank holidays in Matlock, around the A6 are a bloody nightmare.

Another +1 for The Bear. We’ve been taking our daughter there since she was a baby now 3, great carvery on Sundays and one of the few times she actually eats anything meaningful. Totally agree, that the main pub has nicer atmosphere and book well in advance.

I bought my HD copy direct from Anthill. Its in m4v format and a 1.4Gb download! It’s good but not as good as Seasons IMHO.

We did a number of the DH options last year, and echo the comments re. length of the descents, heat and fatigue adding to the mix particularly towards the end of the day, added to the potential for injuring yourself at the beginning of a week’s holiday if out for longer.

I was stupid and managed to hurt shoulder on first afternoon prior to PdS on Pleneny! Exhausted from drive down, no warm-up run etc. but French pharmacies are wonderful and I did the PdS the following day.

When I do it again in the future, I will wear knee/shin and elbow pads and consider full face, depending on the likely dh options.

Stanage Edge – great ride albeit extremely wet.

I would also vote for Tenerife.

Did a day with the guys below – the long way down route – fantastic.

Lava Trax

I’ve got a Seiko Tuna from Seiya.

Inception – found it really hard to watch, had to force myself to continue watching, 2nd half is better but nowhere near as good as I was expecting.

From CRC link above, I’ve got the FSA Orbit on my mmmbop seems Ok so far.

strangertothelight – Saint rear derailleur is RD-M810 GS Shadow, with SLX M661 Top Pull Front Mech, and HG80 9spd 11-32 Cassette, and SLX Chainset FC-M665 double with bash guard 36/22, which I got when it used to be £89.99 but now seems to be about £130-140!

I’ve got a gold Chromag qr seat clamp and black Chromag OS bars on my Heckler and rate them.

Did briefly consider the green OS bars on my mmmbop, but wasn’t convinced the green and the green frame worked as complimentary colours. So black bars on my green mmmbop, with green ODI grips, and a Saint M810 RD matched with an SLX double & bash chainset. Did have an SLX RD but managed to snap the inner plate after about two months.

I’m a big supporter of this as a resident in Matlock and have previously supplied some info to John Grimshaw in a professional capacity – I’m keen to see it all linked up eventually.

The Supporting Statement and associated documentation are very convincing. The proposals will undoubtedly attract more tourists to the area, make our countryside more accessible on trails which are particularly suited to family cyclists and deliver wider economic benefits. In these more difficult times, when areas are actively competing for tourism income, isn’t this precisely the sort of thing local authorities throughout the Peak District should be supporting.

Just got up and can’t quite believe it…

Pair of Sealskinz, spy goggles for dh, XT shifters, The Wire Boxset, Lego Architecture Kit and some new 160mm forks in the NY.

Big presents as birthday yesterday

No, but 180-200mm of travel is fun…

Onzadog,

Darley Moor was frozen solid last week with quite a lot of snow in the woods.

Drive through Chatsworth everyday and been minus temperatures all past week, currently -6 in Matlock and Chatworth normally a couple of degrees colder.

I’ve been biking and wearing contact lenses for about 22 years firstly gas permeable and more recently soft(2-week)disposable lenses.

GP always wore cycling glasses as well, as grit / dust exceedingly painful and not funny.

Worn for XC, DH and snowboarding.

Soft disposable lenses can ride without glasses but prefer to ride with them anyway.

I had a couple of pairs too – brilliant, my equally good blue XC Nike’s ACG with carbon soles, which must be about 2003 are just starting to come apart on the sole by the cleat…

It’s been a while since I’ve done them, but I’m led to believe we don’t call them crits any-more as even this is deemed negative! Think they’re called reviews now.

As above be positive, encouraging and constructive and try to find different things to say to each student – this get’s harder at the end of the day after seeing 30 variations on a theme!

I find it most difficult if they really haven’t done any meaningful work or have any opinion – once had a student who had just got a book from the library and bookmarked interesting pages using post-it notes…

A for me: Had Heckler and BigHit on roof with front wheels off mounted using 20mm forkup device.

Like the idea of C but not sure what the pendulum effect is on Subaru with big bikes and big consideration it was twice as expensive.

I was really impressed with my 4 month old SLX shadow rear mech until I turned the mmmBop upside down earlier today and discovered that the inside plate had snapped by the the lower jockey wheel…

Totally agree, don’t let me put you off! In terms of employable skills as you probably know it’s all heading towards BIM. As above REVIT seems to be the package to learn at the moment, so any opportunity to learn this is going to pay off in the long term, and as a student you should get the discounted software deal.

As much as I love architecture, the next few years are going to very difficult for the profession. Most companies are not currently taking on many students either Part 1 or Part 2, little prospect of any significant public sector work for the foreseeable future and insufficient confidence in the private sector to kick-start commercial development, all a bit bleak but overseas prospects much brighter.

However, lots of places do p/t degree and post grad architecture courses and if you were to start now, hopefully it might be picking up again in the UK by the time you were fully qualified.

My views on Young and Gove as an architect in the education sector for the last 8 years are pretty much unprintable.

Some choice bits which amused me:

Toby not caring if his school produces a Lenin or a Trotsky as long as they are free thinkers…

Toby at a local school, perhaps a PRU, discussing with students the relevance of Latin as someone who hasn’t studied Latin is priceless.

AP

Hanky – do you really put down your part 3 exam?

No, I was merely putting down the full potential of the meaningless letters…

I only use RIBA in a business context, and this seems to be viewed more favourably abroad! Plus this is the one we all worked hard for, so we could use the toilets, bookshop and library at Portland Place! :wink:

Try being an architect, somewhat ridiculous…

BA(Hons) DipArch PgDipArchPrac RIBA

RIBA seems to be most important abroad, rest superflous.

I’d like one in the future, in terms of pricing IIRC my DeKerf Team cost £999 in 1996 (albeit with custom painted Judy’s)so £950 for a Canadian built frame 14 years later isn’t too bad.

I’ve got a gold Chromag one on one bike and a Hope on another, and overall do prefer the Chromag despite the price, it just works really well (and looks pretty good)

Aus

Ahhh – a cousin (it is a hard rather than ST???) – v nice

Exactly, had it from 96 and never selling, one day I would like to hand deliver it back to Chris to get it repainted and some disc brake mounts.

The ST is very cool.

Related to the one above!
]

Bloody nightmare, having spend ridiculous amount of time on phone this morning manage to get 1 only Silver Ticket from MCFC, around £150.00!

Ring SO, expecting gratitude etc. she decides she can’t go on her own, we have words.

Bastard TT announce extra Manchester date whilst I’m in meeting, this afternoon SO buys 4 Silver tickets from MCFC and is very happy – I give up.

Perhaps now is a good time to show her the email from Flow re. Mega next year?

Just back from a 3-hour ride on my mmmBop – lots of up and downs, singletrack through woods etc. and it’s great, climbs and descends especially well and pretty much does everything as claimed.

Put it like this I haven’t yet felt the need to ride the Heckler since this was built up by the guys at the Bike Tree, and the frame was astounding value. Definitely not a HT fanboy, but been pleasantly surprised – last HT was a 1996 DeKerf Team, so the more radical and fun geometry a bit of a change.

Big respect, can still remember finding out and the impact that had on the race weekend. A true inspiration – cheers.

In my circumstances denying access to bike park is probably a good thing as it might impair my role as family suitcase carrier…

Going to make contact with Lavatrax and see what days / bikes / routes they can do.

I'll be easily recognisable – running around the hotel after a three year old daughter who thinks she independent!