It has begun! I’ve made three moves and still have all my pieces. That’s a win in my mind.

Now, chess trash talk…? Is it even possible 🤔

My lockdown learns were 1) Rubixs cube 2) slackline 3) wheelie.

1 and 2 easy. 3… Not a chance. Sigh…

4 games simultaneously! 🤯 I’m going to need cooling fans on my head…

Friendly staff. Fast service. Warm.

Everything else comes after.

@dannybgoode Yes please. Am rubbish, see me an cannon fodder.

Just set up a chess.com account my username is i_like_more_food

Thanks :)

Bit if you’re using plutoline (as opposed to MSW or parrafin wax homebrew) don’t let it cool too much or you won’t be able to wipe off the excess and it’ll be super sticky. I find taking it out straight away and Lying it on its side in a rag to cool works best IMO.

I had a big piece of ply in my old garage with screws in just the right places. In my new garage I thought I’d treat myself to a ‘proper’ metal tool board and hooks.

Wish I hadn’t.

Much more expensive. Less flexible in terms of where you out stuff. Generally just annoying.

Get a big bit of ply, lay it on the floor,spread your tools out and draw round them with Sharpie. Insert screws. Hang on wall. Hang tools. Done.

I think there’s two things here:

First – how much Year 4-6 primary students need that degree of tech for schoolwork at home. I’d doubt they will be allowed to (need to) take them to school to work with and, from the amount and type of homework my 10 yr old gets, he doesn’t need a dedicated iPad of his own.

Second, it then might depend on how linked into MS Office 365 the primary school is. I work in a sixth form college and we’re only now really getting on board with the integration between Teams and Onenote (obvs accelerated massively due to CV-19). Those students in my classes who have iPads with pens do have an advantage just in the simplicity of accessing the work, taking notes on ‘handouts’ and generally taking advantage of the benefits of O365.

Personally I don’t think I would. I’m not looking at getting an iPad for my son until secondary school and unlikely then (as his prospective secondary seems a bit ‘rural’ when it comes to IT integration).

Hope that helps.

Definitely clean it first. Cleaner means it’ll stick for longer in my experience.

Definitely look for secondhand, I bought mine locally from FB marketplace for £500. It was £1200 new.

It was 4 years old, so I was a bit worried but when I went to have a look I could access the settings inside the treadmill (it had an android screen) and it had only done 10km. To be fair the woman who owned it said she just just dried towels over the arms!

Might be a bit tricky to find a secondhand one online at the moment…

Anyway to your question; gradient/speed and reliability are the key things. The more you pay the more you get. Don’t worry about a graphical interface as you’ll probably just use Zwift or watch a film on your tablet. Solid support arms are important and, depending on your fitness top speed might be an issue if you want to do intervals (which are the only way to stop it being super boring).

This thread is great, perfect “dream fertilizer”! Thanks @spekkie.

Is it done yet?

I had a cheap octopus type fan heater from ebay (like this https://adax-solaire.co.uk/product/st12t-analog-footwear-boot-dryer-shoe-heater-220w-wall-mountable/).

Was totally useless. Therefore the only help I can be is to stop you making the same mistake I did!

From here is say where @spekkie lives! Seems to pretty nice place as far as I can tell!

My 10 yr old is on an XS Giant Trance, built as per Tracey’s plan, all secondhand and built by me. Slackened it off a little with an offset bushing and all is good.

I’d definitely get protective wire. We had squirrels neat under ours and chew through the wires… £1000 repair bill including the scaffolding. Stupid squirrels didn’t even electrocute themselves 🙁

What about a deflection torque wrench? They seem a bit more ‘obvious’. Any feedback good or bad?

+1 for Android and they’ll manage the social stigma… They’ll be social stigma for all sorts of reasons, ones you understand and can afford, ones you understand and can’t afford and ones you just don’t understand at all.

Obvs your choice but I try to take the ‘this is good enough’ POV as often as possible (although get it wrong often!).

Not meant as a pop, just that I get how challenging it is to navigate the world of child/teenage wants. My fall back is “you’re getting this one as it’s £XX cheaper which means we’ll be able to go on holiday somewhere nice”

Loved them on my TT bike, hated them on my road and MTB. Just like marmite it seems so def worth trying before printing on a full price one, I’d get a tatty second hand one and experiment.

PS set-up is important, it’s not like a normal saddle. Check the ISM website for tips.

Happy with my Alpkit qurk. Rechargeable but also takes AAAs, plenty light enough for fast (for me) off road running (580 lumens).

Definitely let the tutor/head of year know. It’s really helpful for them as they can start to see patterns emerging before they become real issues. You don’t have to go in heavy handed, just email tutor and HoY and let them know of your concerns.

(I am a secondary teacher if that helps)

I’ve got a pair of fluro yellow Carnac windstopper type from Planet X. Been excellent (obvs fluro may not be your thing). Good for autumn and even a bit of winter with thin liner gloves.

@northwind great summary, thanks. Put me off (in a good way) from investing a week’s riding with mates in the MA.

I drilled through my first pipe this summer. A creaky board on the first floor was annoying me and while the carpets were up I thoughts “I’ll just pop a screw in that”.

After mopping up it was obvious why there were clear pencil lines on the chipboard floor… Oh how I laughed.

Only just got round to fixing and painting the plaster on the ceiling below. 🙄

Exactly what happen6to me. New floor was 1 cm higher…

Looked great when I did a viewing, not so great when I tried to fit the washing machine in!

Oooh. I feel your pain. Had a very similar bruise after looping out a fast manual on a rocky trail (long story, I can’t manual (obvs), was using Spds and fork rebound was zero – a catalogue of errors).

Took 2 months to sit properly and the relief when it was eventually syringed… Soooooooo good! I’ll never forget that!

Still got a numb spot on my bum and a lumpy bit in the bum cheek 18 month later.

My top tip is aggressive massage once the pain has subsided to get rid of any lumpy bits.

Heal fast 👊

I’m not an andiophile (whatever that means) and I CBA to set things up.

I’ve got Echos around the house and they stream multiroom easily with zero faff. Sound it good as far as I’m concerned and it was cheap as I bought them in an Amazon sale for £50 for the 3rd gen Echo.

I don’t have any experience with Sonos so it could be much better, but for faff free voice controlled multiroom streaming via Amazon music I’d go Echo.

Good post, thanks. I’ve just moved to a smaller house and have loved the process of getting rid of stuff and having empty house.

Now I really need to work hard to resist the urge to fill it with crap.

I bought one from FB marketplace, half a gas canister cut in half with legs welded on. £25, works a treat.

It is a bit smokey though if you’re sitting in the wrong side.

Reading this I think I’ve been really lucky not to have more minging crashes.

Thanks @bensale 👍

I’ve checked and the live account is in my name. I’ll check where the home Xbox is when I’m back from my ride!

Thanks both. I’ll check if it’s my or his gold account and which is the home account.

@cougar 30 min is the default, any more he earns with jobs/behaviour etc

I just bought a 55″ Hisense from John Lewis for £379. Really impressed, would Def recommend.

This one: Hisense H55B7500UK (2019) LED HDR 4K Ultra HD Smart TV, 55″ with Freeview Play, Black/Silver

Having spent all day on the phone to stressed/worried students (and some angry parents) I am planning my email to my MP and thinking about invoicing Gavin Williams for my time.

It won’t end today though, once the CAGs go out we’ll field all the complaints about students whose CAG was lower than they wanted.

At least it now feels like the two weeks I spent writing the CAG justification and then forming and moderating my courses CAGs was worthwhile!

Gutted for you, so easily done.

@trail_rat has a good point. Depending on how you’ve prepped your lessons you can get a cheap (£30?) USB Graphics tablet so you can write on your PowerPoint (or whatever) then no image of you really needed other than the initial “hello everyone,how are you, hope you’re all safe,this is the focus of today etc”.

As a teacher I understand your concerns, but don’t think there’s a great deal you can do to address them other than the suggestions above re school policy, and making that policy explicit to parents and students. I’d also reiterate the rules at the start of each session (and there’s a record of who ‘attended’ the session built into Teams).

I’m surprised however that videos are expressly not recorded. Our policy (albeit at a sixth form) is that all sessions are recorded so there’s a record should there be any issues. Also background blurring is compulsory for anyone with a camera (which requires the desktop version of Teams).

I use homebrew (parrafin wax, beeswax, PTFE, molybdenum disulfide) and a slow cooker. Awesome in the dry… Ok in the wet. Very little faff. Rewaxing road chains after 400 dry miles or 150 wet miles, which is fine but.
MTB chains after 200 dry miles or 40 wet and muddy miles (so not great).

Did a super deep clean of the chains before I first waxed and do all bikes at once (6) so it’s easier as you get a system going. Maybe 15 min work total.

However, given all of that it wasn’t for the sunk cost I’d get a deep fat fryer and Plutoline so I didn’t have to do it so often.

As a hobbit-footed rider these suggestions are great. I’d also suggest trying Bontrager road shoes, I have a pair that feel really wide (ie they don’t make my toes numb)

Nothing really to add to the above, we have a cutlery drawer under ours and I’ve never even noticed that anything in there was warmer than ambient.