A big +1 for Mr Vikkis. His hot sauce is a staple, hot enough but very tasty. I got a selection hamper with some pickles for Christmas, a little goes a long way!

A cracking recommendation from an old thread is Hooks. A film about a man who walks from his house to visit every bothy in the country. It’s a great watch, you can find it on YouTube.

“Off of”. As in “I got it off of Amazon”. You mean “from”.

Fried rice, fry up some veg, add some leftover rice, whisk up in an egg or 2 and add to pan (mix it in or clear a space in the pan and let it firm up first before mixing, let the mood take you!). And some soy and chilli flakes. Adapt to what is in the fridge.

Just binned Sky at around £120pm for TV (sports, cinema, HD), BB & phone, which was £35 for 17Mb and doesn’t cope very well with Disney+ And any other internet use or 2 Zoom calls at the same time. Just waiting for an engineer to plug in the fibre that’s been installed for 100Mb at £30pm (BT deal). No phone line any more (when Sky goes) as we pay for 2 mobile (£10pm each with 50Gb). Still got Prime, Netflix, Disney+ and Spotify. Probably get the least use from Prime, we all use Spotify and the kids almost exclusively watch Netflix or Disney+. Extra storage on iCloud and Strava are being kept too. And here!

Better looking at it than looking for it

Morrisons The Best warmed through in the even. Very pleasant!

Getting frustrating now, had a cold that I can’t seem to shift since the challenge started. I’ve purposely left the house to do something every day but that has been mostly dog walks. I miss getting the HR up and doing something longer, running in the hills or out on the bike. Just trying to shift this first rather then pushing it and setting myself back. Almost miss lockdown, didn’t get a single cold last year…

Great to read about everyone’s efforts. Hope to have something meaningful to report soon!

I’m in on this, good for motivation. I did 50 days at the start of the year for the Doddie Weir challenge, it stopped and I went on to 50 days. Thought about 100 then but was tired and really fancied a rest! Taking it easier this time and using it as an excuse to (re) build my base. Was struggling for HR last week, thinking I was totally unfit but the cold that was in the post has been delivered 🙁 Nothing major just a bit grotty. Relieved in one way (not as unfit as I thought) but a bit miffed that it may affect this challenge. Walks it is for a few days.

Well done to everyone, as monkeymonkeydo says, it’s a long way till Christmas. Keep going!

I really liked Craig Charles when he stood in for the awful Lamacq earlier this year. He played some cracking tunes. Brought in the trunk of punk!

Now on holiday

13thFloorMonk – trying to climb up that track from Loch Morie would ruin a ride completely 🤣. Glad I’ve been of assistance! I reckon it would be quite a hoot of a descent on a mountain bike though.

The descent from Novar wind farm (above Loch Glass) down to Loch Morie on my gravel bike. That was a study in concentration. Walked a few small sections, discretion being the better part of valour – it certainly felt remote enough not to want to spangle myself! I don think the track sees much action at all, I was heartened to see a tyre track at one point! The traverse across the bottom of Loch Morie was a bit of a slog as well. You just can’t tell what a routes going to be like from a satellite image…

Helped delivery Bikeability course to the P7s at my kids primary school with some other volunteers over the past few mornings. L2 stuff, so teaching them how to ride safely on the roads. Lots of different levels of ability and confidence but great to see them grow and improve, even if it was only for a few hours. Better to be out in the sunshine on bikes than in the classroom!

Great effort!

Stopped off at Lagan Wolftrax on the way to Aviemore to get my stag weekend started. Had SPDs on the bike at the time. Forgot to take my shoes with me. Didn’t fancy pedalling around Lagan tottering on SPD pedals. The nice guys in the bike shop saved the day by lending me some flat pedals from the spares bin.

The reservoir loop is very doable on a gravel bike. From Balerno, upto Threipmuir, to Bavelaw then cross-country to Loganlea and Glencorse, left up Maidens, down to Harlaw and back to Thriepmuir.

Went from an Ultegra RS65 set of levers and callipers to leavers with RX4 callipers as the Shimano ones kept leaking, including a replacement set. Thought the ultegra setup was spot on apart from that. The RX4s are really good, plenty of power when needed. They’ve been fit and forget for a good few years now.

Bump for today

Resolutes over GKs. Tried the GKs after reviews and recommendations from here but don’t see what the fuss is about. Probably not helped by getting a puncture early on. Day-to-day I can’t see past Schwalbe G1s. If I was doing an event with some proper off-road then I’ll slip the Resolutes on for more volume and grip. They are great. Fast rolling on the road too.

On blends, Compass Box Spice Tree is absolutely delicious!

Greenspot is absolutely delicious, highly recommended!

I read somewhere that kids tend not to be affected because the particular receptor that the virus binds to develop with age, so kids don’t have many of them of the receptors, the number developing with age. Can’t remember where I read that I’m afraid.

Lusty Glaze in Cornwall.

The minister that married me and my wife lives in Whakatane in NZ! Mentioned earlier in the post.

Cockit hat and Cock my lane in my Edinburgh neighbourhood.

ah, the STW forum to the rescue again. Been looking for an ooni gas attachment for months, but they have been out of stock everywhere. Even looked on the ooni website this morning, then read this thread and caught the update on lakeland having some ooni stock. One gas burner ordered!

Pellets are fine, but you need to keep on top of it, so looking forward to some less-hassle pizza cooking!

Thanks for the replies.

Any update from Chipps? Have you still been riding the one in the article from a few editions ago?

See.Sense. Adjustable brightness via app (bluetooth) and a quite frankly amazing battery life. I use mine (or did before lockdown & wfh),twice daily, 5 days a week on commutes and go weeks between charges. Flashing and steady modes. Steady mode on 100% is just, enough to use for some impromptu low level off-roading. Use rubber straps to mount round bars and seat post, so a doddle to swap between bikes.

Thanks for the PSA! What a lovely film about an amazing character. Just one of those great heart warming stories, all the Better for being true (well mostly, see “did it really happen like that” comment above).

Like hens teeth rexated!

Thanks Alex, really good to hear your experience, seems to tally with my thinking. Interesting to hear your thoughts on the shock, not really factoring in an upgrade on what would be an expensive bike already..!

Chipps – I’ll dig out that review, thanks! But happy for an update too!

Does anyone have any experience of Family Ski? We’ve been with Esprit for the past 5 years, but their current resort options are limited. 4 families with 10 kids With ages ranging from 4 – 11, so needing a range of ski lessons.

Got some Fermipan Dried active yeast from eBay. Took a while to be delivered but we’ll worth the wait, the yeast seems to be much better than Allison’s, loads more active. Makes great bread.

Just swapped out a gripshift for trigger on my eldest’s Frog. She gets on much better with the trigger. Will be doing the same for my nephew’s bike too.

See.Sense would be my recommendation. Amazing lights, had one for a couple of years with o issues at all. Use them daily on the commute. So on for around an hour a day. Can go for a couple of weeks between charges with lowering the brightness to 60%. Will probably turn it up a notch when it’s truly dark of a morn.

lovely stuff!

Wallop, you beat me to it with Unicum. Absolutely. Vile.

As youths, we used to drink “green nasties” in the Olde Vaults in Chester. Half lager, half bitter and some spirit or liqueur to make it green. A must do at last orders.

Mali-bru. Malibu and irn-bru. Not as bad as you’d think. But can’t even contemplate irn-bru anymore after a night mixing it with v cheap vodka.

And to finish a night, rampagne. Everyone’s favourite mix of red wine and champagne. You’ll probably be drunk before you get to the rampagne stage of the evening. Always a sign of a most convivial evening!

Totally favouriting this!

Go for it! I would offer the same advice as neila. Recently rode the Loch Ness Etape, which was my first road event. That was 66 miles. Keep hydrated and fed, little and often. I only took a quick pee stop and missed out on the feed stations as I had enough with me and wanted to keep going. But if you want to stop, take it easy, then do that. Wear what you you feel most comfortable in. You’ll be fine. Just don’t go mad at the start, when everyone else is haring off. And don’t forget to enjoy it! Soak it up and have a blast.

Thanks for the replies. I’ve no doubt it’s tricky, but it looks like it could be fun. Or hugely frustrating!?

I used to tip the bottle onto the chain and spin the chain around. That a few times with no cleaning in between left a reet horrible amount of gunk on the jockey wheels. I now take my time and put a drop on each individual roller. Takes a bit more time but seems pretty effective.