My experience is a little better, outbid by £10k on the first, second Offered £10k over, accepted then, after I’d spent £1k on survey and searches, their purchase fell through and they took it off the market. Onto third one now, offer accepted at asking price, things seem to mbe moving but I’ve got a squeeky bum that I’ve bought at the tippity top of the market. Ho hum, whatever happens I know I’m very much still in a lucky position.

Divorce, had enough.

The key thing to note is that hygiene standards are a lot higher than back in the day. You will need to shave / wax yer balls for starters.

Not sure if that’s a 🤯 or a 🤣 but it’s definitely a ❌

Just be George Clooney

Sadly I’m too pale, unsophisticated, ginger and poor to pull that off.

Loads of great advice, especially the ‘dont take it personally’ and ‘short first date’.

The female perspective is also really helpful too, so thanks to the ♀️ who posted.

Perhaps SingletrackSingles is a new income stream that Chipps et al. could mine? 😂

Quite a few have their primary photos with a bloke. That always seems a bit odd to me?

I’ve made some red flags for swipe left:

1) bunny ear filter or similar
2) no text/bio
3) proudly non-vaxed

That’s made the short list even shorter.

Brilliant, thanks all. Genuinely laughing now. Onwards!

If you want a short 4-5 HR pootle the get in at Hereford rowing club and out at Lucksall Campsite. Both charge but it’s not bonkers expensive and you can leave a car at each end if that’s what your planning (or drop off stuff at rowing club, drove to Lucksall, park and pedal back to Rowing club, lock bike up).

Obviously timing depends on water level but it’s a nice stretch and not very busy (compared to lower Wye valley for example).

Lots of picnic spots on the way of you wanted to break it up.

I used to have one, even drilled a hole in the wall to vent it (south facing bedroom with a dark coloured house, was bonkers hot). Venting through a 2ondow didn’t work as warm air just flooded back in.

With the hole sorted it Would cool the room fine, definitely wouldn’t cool more than that.

Obvs in the winter you need to stuff insulation in the hole!

Thanks all for the contributions. I’ve been on 50mg for 18 months now, really interesting to hear about losing interest in reading. I haven’t read a book to the end for… 18 months. I was blaming my phone… (Which, to be fair, probably is a contributing factor).

My tricky bit is that the key stimulus for the issues that needed medicating has been resolved, but I start a mega stressful new job in September. I’ll need to be fully switched on for it. Stay on, or not?

Best Amazon review ever by Cougar, I’m not surprised they are sold out, after reading that review I want one and have hard floor in my (home) office.

Secondary school teacher. +1 for touchscreen and pen. It’s transformative for planning, notes etc with OneNote. Marking work online is so much easier. Appreciate primary is different in many ways, but once you’ve annotated some policy or other in OneNote you’ll never again print, annotation, file, lose.

So sorry to hear that. Such sad news.

Had it, no problems after 3 years.

I’d definitely recommend a dehumidifier, fixes the drying clothes indoors in winter problem. If you don’t want electric stuff in there then perhaps there’s a loft based solution? If you don’t have some kind of dehumidifier going on and you just heat a closed room then you’ve built a sauna.

I once left some (slightly) radioactive samples from my lab in a bank. In a large box with radioactive stickers on it. On September the 12th (yes, that 12th). Police weren’t amused.

I also have reversed over my own front wheel twice (two different wheels, not twice over same wheel, that would be stupid).

Aged 14 I thought “what will happen if I hold this camera flash up to my eye and set it off”. So I did. What happened is I went temporarily blind then, after about 20 minutes, only green came back. Felt like such an idiot that I didn’t tell anyone. Took a couple of days for full vision to come back.

Those are just the ones that spring to mind, there are many many more.

Don’t really have a lot to offer other than I’m probably a year or two behind you. What a painful and drawn out proceedure the whole thing is.

If it’s any help I’ve decided to focus on a strategy of ‘optimising for happiness’ rather than a specific percentage point or a sense of unfairness. Essentially there’s a cost of doing business and to me, being able to be in control of my own destiny is worth a lot of money.

My local chain gym (not pure gym but similar 24/7 model) is quiet at 6.30 am when I go. About 5 people in a space the size of a tennis court.

Mediation isn’t working

😔 out of luck this morning. Should have gone last night!

My local Lidl will have 2. Which is awkward was I’ve told 2 mates about it and we’re all going to be there early. Definitely a fight on the cards… 😬

Think it is in-store only 🤔

Don’t think performance is the main thing in my son’s mind, he spends most of the time climbing on then jumping off it. I’m getting another so I actually get to paddle about.

Calming, yes. Any relationship to how o build bikes, no.

No sweating or swearing. No 2 hours trying to feed the cables internally. No realising you don’t have crucial bit to bleed the brakes as some Shimano road levers have a different thread size for the bleed port. No bits lost in the box, then you find them in the workbench after looking in the box for ages.

I’m doing it all wrong.

First direct shows them as separate accounts (we had 5 accounts linked to the mortgage). Customer service has always been excellent, if you haven’t already I’d check them out.

@alexsimon you need some kind of application process. Or I could just fight @rossburton?

First battle definitely needs to be live streamed here.

Ps How do you know who’s ‘won’?

I thought I didn’t need a head mounted light in addition to a powerful bar light… Until I got the first rock drop and realised I couldn’t see any part of the landing as it was all in shadow.

I’d ridden it loads before so it was well within my skill level but riding it effectively with my eyes shut was something I won’t do again.

Undoing the spd bolts one by one and greasing them liberally fixed my squeak (one by one so your clear position doesn’t move).

Unless it’s your knees? 😉

I’ve had some. I wouldn’t recommend.

@thebunk re Bluetooth be careful, mines got all the steering wheel buttons for a phone but no Bluetooth. After some googling it turns out on some of the stereos you can have DAB or Bluetooth, not both. The DAB is good mind!

I can put my bike on wheels on (medium 27.5) with all the seats down, but two muddy bikes are easier on the back (esp with the hope it’ll rain on the way home and they’ll get cleaned 🤣)

@matt_outandabout it’s a Thule of some sort, second hand from FB marketplace so not sure. It’s doing up the bolt that holds it onto the tow bar thing thats annoying but I’m going to get a ratchet spanner plus I’ll speed up with practice for sure. It didn’t help that I smacked my noggin on it the first time and had to hold in a stream of grown up language as there was a young family on the road outside!

I’ll take some photos of bikes insode if that’ll help anyone?

Haven’t read the whole thread but from my ex-wifes experience would definitely recommend the ISM Adamo style. They Transformed her cycling (and she rides A LOT). She even runs one with all the padding removed (just the bare plastic shell) which she says is just as comfy!

I did say nothing was going to happen for a while… And updating as much to say thanks to those that posted.

And… @5lab is the winner! Zafira Tourer from a mate, timing was perfect (sold van and collected car in same day) and I obviously trust my mate and the history. Much cheaper than I’d feared so spent some of the spare on an e-bike conversion kit (Sywtch) so the 60 mile round trip is doable once a week.

It’s probably not some people’s idea of a nice car but with electric windows, air con and comfy seats I feel like a millionaire 😂.

On the flip side putting my bike on the tow bar rack is annoying after just one effort, so there’s a van in my future again at some point.

Thanks again for the advice.

Just ordered the shuttle for ‘my son’, some of the best dad-son time ever, esp when we cant go away so easily on trips.

Ps. I put 500km over 5 months in winter on it then sold it for £500 so the depreciation curve is steep but flattens out well

I got a second hand one for £500. Was £1250 new and the onboard software said the owner has used it for… 5km! That’s £150 per km 😬

If you can wait then keep your eyes peeled for a local secondhand one, I’m sure as summer kicks in and th weather improves people will be selling the ones they bought at the start of lockdown.

Oh that’s so hard. Sorry to hear that. I’m really glad you found her in time and hope she comes through this ok.

I put some Reba Race on my son’s bike, worked fine but the pressure had to be just right.

Yup. I do. Only when riding, worse on longer road rides. No fixes but much much better when I’m regularly going to the gym (so it’s not great at the moment!).

I once when using a track pump had the misfortune to have a road bike tube explode at around 130psi it was quite the bang.

Enclosed garage as well, it was like a shotgun

Brown trousers..

I was once in a bike shop when this happened. There was a dog in the shop. There was actual poo on the floor afterwards.

@donkeysled glad it was useful. From what you’ve said I think there is a story there, calling out gov or local gov incompetence (being charitable) or corruption is one of the crucial roles of a free press. Corruption, even if no one gets ‘hurt’ has a cancerous effect on society and the individual (as you’re experiencing).

But… Don’t cut your nose off to spite your face. At times like these a regular income is crucial for you and family. Report it and do what you can, but working in the role you describe isn’t complicit in the scheme the way a manager or accountant might be.