I rode 75 miles on a carbon race bike last week (Cube Listening) on 25mm tyres and about 30.miles was gravel/national sustrans/farmers field (accidentally)

Bike held up fine on 25mm GP 5000.

Suspect unless riding proper gravel off road long distance you need less bike than you think…

isn’t that Joe Abercrombie’s latest Third Law novel?

It’s a book by Katzenbach and Smith .no idea who Joe is!

Not read whole thread and not sure how much time you have…

The Fearless Organisation and The Wisdom of Teams are two brief and very accessible books.tnat give a good academic side to the theory of team performance,.and why teams fail.

Also an orthopaedic surgeon (not spine).

Overall hip replacement is an amazingly successful operation.

Key things to factor into your thinking – a hip replacement doesn’t give you a normal hip again, it gives you an almost normal one that doesn’t hurt. Running/impact sport will lead to accelerated wear as its just a bearing surface and the more you load it…

It’s really just very effective pain relief – so if the pain can be controlled with tablet pain relief that is better than operation pain relief. When tablet pain relief no longer works a hip replacement is a good operation.

A small (very small) number of patients have disastrous and life changing complications and end up worse than they were – it’s small, and it’s less likely in a young fit patient but it can happen. A really important thing to think about is ‘could I handle it psychologically if I had a really bad outcome’ Hard to work that out but you meet a small number of patients who are very very regretful about having had surgery and than can be very hard for them to deal with.

This isn’t meant to be off putting, more about the stuff to have wrestled with!

Those of you who have one- how old are your kids? Boy almost 3 and would love to take him out on one of these on the MTB…

Nelson Beach Club Messini very good. Nice place, decent beach, cracking road cycling nearby and group rides almost every day or you just take a bike and do your own thing

For accuracy… only the ‘basic pay’ for junior doctors is pensionable. All banding/out of hours work etc which does generate a pay premium is non pensionable. As such for those graduating now with 80-90k debt the NHS pension looks very different as it is career average not final salary.

The issue for many at present is they will have some pension in 1995 (final salary scheme) and some in 2015 (career average). You can generate a theoretical >40k pension increase as a year one consultant due to the difference in pensionable pay from registrar to consultant. You pay in nowhere near 40k but the scheme thinks the pot has risen more than this in a year as the theoretical value of the pot (that doesn’t exist) at retirement has grown more than 40k.

It is also incredibly difficult to work out if you will breach the limit each year without a complex algorithm that even a lot of accountants and IFAs don’t understand.

Point that NHS pension very generous is entirely valid, but something had to be done as for some consultants it made more financial sense to retire than to work as they would be better off overall to retire than to keep working – that doesn’t make sense on any level when waiting lists are at a record high.

Calculating pension increase of mhs pension year on year is far from simple. Google Tony Goldstone NHS Pension for the long winded explanations as ehs written loads on it.

A five figure tac bill for one years pension growth is entirely possible, and once you get into that problem the only solutions is to leave the scheme or drop hours, both of which are an issue for the NHS.

Yes the pension is a good one but there are a number of consultants finding themselves in a position where early retirement leaves them better off than continuing to work.

Which is madness!

As others have said – some of this is about fixing the NHS pension issue. There is zero control over contributions, you are either in or out and can’t control the amount.

Calculating the pension growth each year is a complex algorithm that lots of IFAs don’t even get.

It is possible to get a pension tax bill bigger than your salary for the year. So you pay to go to work

That’s not really the rich getting richer…

Accept jn other cases it may be!

L’enclume is excellent, although was spendy enough before covid and three stars.

Yorebridge House in Yorkshire Dales very nice and walking from the door. Really lovely place.

Brimstone In lakes meant to be v good, not been but a cycling buddy goes quite a bit.

Have always phoned the dealer before going in and said ‘I’m interested in x car, can you call me back with the best price you can do on it?’.

Has led to a call back with a reduction in price every time before even going to look at it…

Been a few years though so not tried it recently!

Checkw – multifactorial. Social care is a huge issue – up to 30% of acute beds in hospitals are patients awaiting social care, who do not need a hospital bed/hospital care but nowhere else to go. By definition if you run anything (whether hospital or fitting tyres or whatever) and 30-35% of your capacity to do work is lost you are snookered.

There are also staffing issues for multiple reasons with lots of unfilled posts due to pay/conditions/morale/burnout in non medical roles (nursing/support workers especially). Among senior consultants there have been a lot of early retirements/people refusing to do extra work that they did historically due to pension taxation. This is a complex issue but in effect taking on extra work can mean you pay far more in tax than you got paid, so bottom line you can have more money in the bank each month if you do less work. No one in their right mind would say yes I’ll do an extra days work each week and earn less money than I had in the first place.

Flu/Covid are not actually that much of an issue but the numbers being admitted are still high enough to disrupt a system that was already struggling.

Our hospital had fewer empty beds in summer than we’ve ever had in winter in the last 20 years – some of this is a chronic problem that has just got slowly worse over 10+ years but a combination of factors some of which are pandemic related and some of which aren’t have created a tipping point.

As others have said – best MTB is kalamunda which is the opposite side of the city to the beach and coast. Not a bad place to live if not bothered about being by the beach and a lot cheaper than down by the coast.

Used to ride with the guys in kalamunda cycles many years ago when I lived over there. In sure they’d show him around a bit if he dropped in…

James. Absolutely brilliant live, especially open air gigs.

Cutgate easy to navigate without map,.never mind with!

Now it’s had work done usually ok unless there’s been a massive deluge

Ridden a rental one a few times. Amazingly capable and quite plush. Ride uphill well, accepting there are slightly quicker bikes if you want out and out climbing speed. Bit for a good all rounder they are excellent and descend amazingly for the travel.

Another vote for Rob Hayles, done my frame and just done a mates. Based Glossop way. Brilliant repair and top bloke.

KTM Scarp worth a look too. The old 100mm travel one was like a rocket on singletrack. Now 120mm travel so more trail friendly

There is no urgency and this type of injury needs operating with all the information at the right time, once the soft tissues have settled a little. Common for this type of injury to wait more than a week to be operated.

The specifics of recovery etc with this type of injury need to be discussed with whoever treats you as no two injuries are the same.

The NHS is mostly very good at dealing with this type of stuff and most private hospitals don’t have the setup to fix acute fractures – most of my trauma colleagues would refuse to fix a fracture in a private hospital as it is not set up for it. There will be odd exceptions to this of course…

jet (Orthopaedic surgeon although don’t do knees anymore)

Try white rose kitchens in barnsley (ignore the name!)

They do bedrooms as well as kitchen. Top blokes and decent pricing. Think we paid 5k ish for a 4 metre wardrobe and a 2.8 metre wardrobe both of which had full interior fittings as well.

Prices on EVs are good although there is variation between models. We have a leaf that costs 230/month out of net salary. That includes servicing, breakdown, tyres, insurance and the car.

10000 miles/year mileage.

The hybrids/normal engined cars are not great value as others have said but the EVs are pretty good for the most part.

If it’s a work scheme there may not be a deposit (apologies if missed the point).

Currently pay 230/month for a Nissan Leaf including insurance, maintenance, tyres and breakdown. No deposit. Ridiculously cheap. Also means the petrol car gets filled once every other month or less now…

Joro is modern tasting menu food and very highly rated both by restaurant critics and mates who have been.

There’s also a good spa hotel near Hope that gets very good reviews but not sure of costs.

Whitley Hall Hotel and Restaurant also a nice experience if a little old school but meant to be very good.

Charger cost markedly varied. Some 7kW chargers are free in supermarkets/shopping centres.

50/100kW charger prices vary. Instavolt seem to be 40p/kW but have convenience of just using contactless card.

As per robster – no rush – six weeks is nothing in terms of fracture healing. Treatment of clavicle fractures is probably one of the most controversial topics in orthopaedics.

No good evidence that surgery is better than non-op for most fractures, and a source of major debate.

Most important thing is a good discussion about the pros and cons with whoever is treating you based on your circumstances and your injury as not two injuries/patients are the same.

(In the orthopaedic trade but not in the collar bone trade)

BT video one – as per others works well. Useful to check why crying. Without it can’t hear a think unless we’re in bed in next room.

Think we have the 6000 – occasional deals come up. Money well spent if it gives peace of mind

Klein adroit mission control. Ooft.

RDL – lots in Sheffield seem to be going to cash buyers With no mortgage so valuation not an issue.

We have tried to view some houses and been refused as already 40+ viewings booked. Just bonkers.

Seems steep. We have a leaf on salary sacrifice on 8000 miles/yr. 220 month from net salary including insurance, breakdown, tyres, servicing.

Appreciate that is something of a bargain….

Not sure what they start at but your description sounds pretty much like you’d suit a YT Izzo?

Have ridden a fuel ex as a rental at trail centres. Was amazingly plush downhill for the travel but felt like it suffered up due to that.

If you want you want is something that will go up and down quick then can see the logic of changing

Can’t remember the model but demo’d a KTM full Sus at a demo day and that was lightening fast. Was compromised over drops and proper rocky stuff but if you like fast single-track that may also be worth a look.

Guess the hard thing at the moment is good deals are not exactly easy to find so your 3k may not go as far as at other times unless you go for something a bit less popular.

I’d start with when do you want to retire with what income?

Mortgage borrowing is probably the cheapest it will ever be for a generation, and savings rates below inflation. So cash in the bank is worth less year on year.

If you don’t need the money now, or for ten plus years I’d be investing at least some of it, as sounds like mortgage is easily payable anyway.

If retirement is 60 or more compound interest in investments starts adding up….

Just done this – Scottish Widows professional mortgage was best by some margin for an offset. Only available via a broker though.

They will also lend staggering amounts it seems – declined that option!

Mazda 3. Great cars and renowned for being bombproof. Picked one up for 4k with 45000 miles on it as a one year stop gap

Five years later it’s on 110 000 miles and haven’t spent anything apart from routine servicing. Touch wood….

Mark88 coffika on ecclesall road is very good – decent coffee and relaxed placed to work.

As per lard johntys and 7 hills just round corner from there are good too.

Maybe amici and bici abbeydale road too?

Upshot Glossop road best coffee but take away only at the moment I think.

If it’s warm enough coffee shop in millhouses park nice place to sit for a while (but outdoor seating only at mo)

Worth getting the ‘zap map’ app – shows you what chargers are in your area, whether they are free or pay, what connections, and whether they are in use.

Pretty useful overall – found that there are free chargers at a couple of locations near us which means sometimes can go grab a coffee and get some work done somewhere and leave car charging for an hour or two for a free top up.

Blokeuptheroad – plenty of hobbies, well, bikes. Don’t ride loads but enough. Guess I don’t particularly for that there’s anything need more time for, but appreciate not everyone feels like that.

Interesting reading all this, currently hoping to keep working to 68-70, purely for enjoyment of the job. Cannot imagine retiring at less than 65 without being bored.

What you describe is quite normal, and in some/quite a lot of places they deliberately mix people up all the time to avoid regular teams.

The figure is from the covidsurg project. Surgery under GA and covid + around time of surgery had 20% mortality when all patients across all surgery were reviewed.

It’s a huge mixed group and at a time when covid community levels were higher, no distancing in hospitals, no screening, no covid minimised pathways so numbers are questionable but they are the only numbers anyone has.

jet(surgeon but not hands)

Not my area of expertise but Starmers.record asna barrister seems very very good so he is clearly capable and bright.

The key to going after PM/Govt over all the current issues is surely timing and picking your arguments. A well timed strike with the relevant evidence is better than constant sniping over anything and everything.

Would love to see a starmer led labour government but it’s about waiting for the right moments and opportunities? And accepting that may be a slow process to change people’s minds as others have said.