His biggest and most disappointing lie is the one he still maintains, and that is regarding his confession to the doctors when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer about what he was taking before then.

He swore a deposition saying that Betsy Andreu’s recollection of the conversation was untrue.

Were he to admit that he lied in that deposition, he is open to a criminal charge of perjury. He has to continue the lie to avoid prosecution.

I have the Torm ones. They, erm, warm my arms.

Yeah, public school education, skipped Uni to be a City Boy – how the hell do you turn up at 18 or so clutching your A-Level results and say “I’d like to be a commodity broker please?”

Have a look at this chart.

Being a “city boy” between 1980 and 2000 was easy. In a rapidly rising market, in a period of sustained global growth, all they had to do was place their buy orders then watch the money roll in. They didn’t need to be clever or experienced. If you had the “right stuff” of balls and stamina, and a mate in a firm, you were in. Remember “Black Monday” in 1987? You can see it on the chart. TV images of all those traders with their heads in their hands because the markets fell? This was the first time in most traders’ careers they had seen losses. They had been placing huge one-way bets for years, with no downside. It wasn’t difficult to make money.

Now I know Farage was in commodities not equities, but once again, they were simpler times with simpler markets and simpler products.

Assuming a one-off investment of £1000, just as much consideration needs to be given to reducing the downside as maximising the upside. We’d need to know how much £1000 is worth to the person investing. Is this their life savings or a small part of a wider portfolio? Do they have a mortgage? At what rate? Do they have unsecured debts?

Then: What are they investing for? Is there a set date at which they will need to cash out? (retirement, uni fees, etc) or can they be flexible?

Assuming the investor has no unsecured debts, a cash buffer, and will not need to liquidate on a set date but has a mortgage at say 4%, whacking it off the mortgage wouldn’t be a bad shout. No dealing costs, no CGT considerations; little volatility; an instant addition to the investor’s lifetime wealth.

A blind punt on an equity is fun, but dealing costs on such a small trade are a significant consideration. I’m only being slightly flippant when I say that taking your £1000 to the casino will be an easier chance of beating the FTSE when the dealing cost of a equity trade roughly match the house edge on a roulette table. And you could do so in an hour, rather than over weeks/months/years, and have nothing to declare on your tax return 🙂

Star Wars Lego. Seriously.

No. You don’t suddenly become MD of a building firm if you get them in to do a job on your house.

OP, your wife has put her career on hold for some time in order to raise a child. Now, it turns out her dream job might not be so dreamy for her after all. Perhaps she has good reason to be dissatisfied, and is just looking to you for a little support.

If people have appreciated the service of the NHS whether due to a cycling injury or not, then of course a donation or a gift to the staff is a kind and generous gesture.

I don’t think BPW as a business would want an A&E or Air Ambulance collection tin on the counter, due to the implication that their customers will be needing those services 🙂

But I could be wrong. Ask them!

I started a job in Jan and walked out in April. I’ve since got a new one which starts in September. At the interview, my prospective new boss said to me “what happened in your last job? You weren’t there very long.” I said “Yes – I walked out”. He laughed and said “don’t worry – you’ll be OK here.”

My new job is more junior than my last but I can’t wait for the opportunity to just do the core job without the leadership responsibilities.

I have my ex-wife’s mortgage, child maintenance and the usual living expenses to pay. To bridge the gap I’ve cut back on spending, put a bit on my credit card and my girlfriend’s been very supportive.

Life’s too short to be miserable at work. Just walk. It’ll be all right.

Whilst the suggestion is meant well, I’m not sure BPW or its customers are under any obligation to subsidize the local A&E any more than anyone else.

Ten casualties over a weekend will make up a tiny fraction of A&E admissions.

Should motorcyclists/rugby players/heroin addicts/people who like to stick unusual things up their bottoms also be called upon to pay £2 per activity in case their risky hobbies land them in A&E?

It’s the thin end of a “bloody cyclists clogging up our cubicles” wedge 😉

The car park cctv might well show her getting into her car?

Shouldn’t be too difficult – she probably parked in a disabled space 🙂

If you want I’m happy to return the money!

Gosh, let me think…
…
…
Yes. Yes I expect they do want.

Here’s one for you, ducks. A pleasant pootle over quiet roads to Otley, then along the river Wharfe to Bolton Abbey, have tea and a scone in the Cavendish Pavilion, then up into the Storiths – gorgeous little roads, very quiet and pretty (and a bit bleak, if you like that sort of thing) then Greenhow Hill (of Tour de France and Tour de Yorkshire fame) and a – ahem – “thrilling” descent into Pateley Bridge, a short drag up Hebden Bank then an easy 10 miles back into Harrogate, sit back, light your pipe and admire your handiwork.

I think you can download the gpx from the Strava page.

Rapha Pro Team Race Cape

Go into Strava. Do activity search with “Kidderminster” in it and your minimum/maximum required distance. Take your pick.

Re deep section wheels, I used to lust after them but the wind on the moors has put me off and I’ll always use lightweight shallow section wheels for the type of riding I do. But then you might have more confidence/better bike handling skills than I do.

If you’re not bothered about aero wheels then this evens the prices up a bit. If I was in the market for an aero bike, I’d be having a look at the offerings from Cipollini, Mercx and Trek too.

Let us know what you get 🙂

These are the bikes I wanted then and still do now for reasons only known to me.

Yeah – we don’t have to rationalise our bike choices – we ride what we love. The word “pretentious” gets thrown around far too much by inverted snobs who don’t really know what it means.

I guess the article was just written to provoke discussion.

I was massively fond of my 1994 Marin Bear Valley SE, but compared to modern bikes it rode like cack 🙂 If I still had it I would use it as a bridleway bimbler at best.

Merlin?

Well put

I foresee The Hunger Games.

Was this the Boaty McBoatface referendum?

Good observation. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Outdated “low fat diet” advice still pollutes most people’s thinking about what healthy eating is.

Most people in the UK could do with upping their protein intake and reducing their carb intake, and worrying less about their fat intake.

I went from 92kg to 75kg doing the following:

Cut baked goods, pasta, rice, fruit, beer, and sugary snacks.

Eat more eggs, meat, seafood, leafy greens.

Log your macros on MFP. Ignore their “recommended” macro proportions and aim for 1g of protein per kg of body weight while staying within their daily calorie limit. Easy if you weigh/log everything on the app. Log your exercise on MFP and eat back half of the calories you use exercising.

Get out of the “low fat” mindset and into the “low carb” mindset. Porridge is not more “slimming” than toast for breakfast. Have 2 scrambled eggs and a double espresso instead 🙂

Don’t eat after 8pm.

Exercise: Lift heavy. See Stronglifts 5×5 for a beginner plan. Cut back on the squats if you still want to ride your bike. Personally I find I still need to do cardio as well as lifting so I run/cycle on alternate days, even if it’s only an hour session.

On the odd occasion I’ve had cause to complain to a big company (Sky, HSBC, First Utility, I’m looking at you), I’ve found there really is no point sitting for hours on hold going round labyrinthine call management systems, getting empty promises from Customer Service drones, then ending up back at square one.

Read their complaints procedure. Follow it, escalating at each stage as appropriate, keeping it straightforward and businesslike. It requires patience, but eventually your complaint will reach someone with the authority and nous to just pick up the phone and send one of their standby sparks round to yours to do the work.

Re compensation, read your contract with them. It probably says that the £30 payment every time they don’t show is accepted by you in full & final settlement. It’s worth it to them to chuck £30 at you every time they screw up – cheaper than dealing with ongoing customer complaints/litigation.

PolarisAndy, where can I see more of your work online?

Some excellent advice here. Thanks all.

I can see WA and short telephoto lenses. No standard lens?

Just use lean mix concrete for the wall base, level it off approximately, then use a mortar bed to get the first course of bricks spot on (take your time here and it’ll pay off). Behind the wall to level it use some ‘type 1’ – builder’s merchants will supply and advise, it’s cheap stuff. I’d try and make sure you’ve got a minimum of 250mm thick across the patio, then hire a Wacker plate to tamp it down. It may seem overkill but will be worth it long term in keeping you out of jail and the slabs level.

OK thanks.

1. Can I pour the concrete straight onto compacted earth, or if not, what substrate?

2. How deep should the concrete be?

3. How deep can the mortar be if I’m having to correct the level?

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/may/14/mystery-saddleworth-moor-who-was-neil-dovestone

Thanks for the heads up – I’ll listen to that. The above article is also very good.

I live on the edge of Saddleworth Moor (not where my username suggests)and spend a lot of time riding up there. It’s very beautiful and very bleak but not quite as dramatic and dark as the article makes it seem.

How steep is the slope?

Going to get the spirit level across the hole once I’ve finished digging it out, but approx (conveniently) the height of a brick!

I think Nancy Sinatra went….or was it Lee Hazlewood?

Johnny Cash and June Carter

This year its the same code for everyone .

It can be used once per unique Rapha account .

You’re right it’s the same code, but I used it for two separate purchases on my one account and it went through OK 😉

It’s a nice thought, but a few years premature. If you want to get them a cycling-related gift, how about Cycling related baby clothes or something?

57/43 remain

I’m assuming you’re not going to be racing this bike

Correct and this is the point of the build. I’m getting older, I’m never going to race, and when I think of my cycling future, I see century rides, exploration and mini adventures: Alpine climbs and the like.

My lightweight carbon road bike is great and I don’t need a new bike right now, but when I do, it will probably be steel with 28s, discs and wireless shifting.

You’re right – the parts might come and go but I want a frame that will see me out 🙂

Hurrah! The bike I nearly bough last time round until I discovered they weren’t making an xl.

I’ll be very interested in this in a year or so.

Are you shrinking?

And sensible cyclists will still be riding steel singlespeeds….

Not in West Yorkshire they won’t be

Steel, great geometry and size for you, nice groupset, best wheels you can afford – happy days

You read my mind 🙂

Very excited about wireless electronic shifting though. Clean lines, no cables or wires to fanny about with…

clutter-free bike

This

chav-tastic, max-power-styled, ‘road’ bikes will continue to become ever more ugly and impractical, far past the point where it could be said that they’re even still ‘bicycles’.

😆

3/10

Di2 is 7 years old, not sure that’s ‘early adoption’…!

Point taken, but I think the future is wireless!

The Orange haters are straight in on the first 2 responses!!

My response was “a blue bike”. How you read that as “I hate Orange – they’re really rubbish” is completely beyond me.

Actually I like Orange. I rode a 5 until it was nicked. If I could afford it I’d have another.