Counter argument is that thats the normal price, but prices are reduced at off peak times to smooth the passenger load and stimulate numbers.

It’s probably a bit of both – ‘discounted’ tickets off-peak to encourage numbers, artificially high prices at peak times when you’ve got a captive audience who (in the main) have no choice but to travel at these times.

An amusing side effect of this is that off-peak travellers often get quieter trains with more seating choice than the peak travellers who’ve paid 4x more more their ticket.

I agree 100% that train operators should be required to clearly display the cheapest ticket options.

Regional operators in particular are the worst.

A national operator like Virgin (are there any others?) I have found pretty clear when it comes to finding cheapest prices if you’re travelling direct between two major destinations.

Some of the worst litter I have seen was around Llandegla a couple of weeks ago. What type of cycling god needs bottles and packets of this crap to get around Llandegls?
If you tough enough to carry it up when its full you are tough enough to carry it down when its empty.

They’re just following the example set by the pro riders they see on Freecaster or the Eurosport channel.

Very impressive drivers back then.

I can’t imagine the mentality required to drive at your absolute limit knowing that if it went wrong you would be most likely be killed, or at least massively burned/injured.

Interesting, so despite their reputation on STW, not one Lynskey failure in maybe 100 broken bikes

Possibly because Lynskey frames are few and far between compared to other brands …

constant deadlines

Can a deadline be constant? 😕

I always though a deadline was a specific point in time.

I think people above have hit the hail on the ned – your 2/3 yo is adjusting to not being the centre of attention.

As mentioned above, you need to work on giving him some one-on-one time, or involving him in stuff you do with the baby so that you’re doing things as a family rather than with one or the other.

Kids obviously need specific attention, but also need to learn that they are part of a family and not the centre of attention.

If it’s any consolation, our eldest took some time to get used to his brother arriving. My wife and I eventually realised we were not giving him proper attention so tried to change that (difficult with a baby that can’t do anything for itself).

Now that the baby’s crawling and being more ‘interactive’ our eldest enjoys playing with him, can do stuff with him etc and so doesn’t feel like he’s competing for attention as much.

It looks at lot better in the conceptual picture posted above than it does in real life …

As someone completely ignorant to the world of sculpture (and art in general), it unfortunately looks like a load of old scaffolding erected in the 70’s that someone forgot to take down.

Certainly doesn’t look modern in any respect.

I imagine it might be fairly impressive standing next to it, considering its size.

Oh good, another thread for people to moan on and on about how they don’t like the Olympics … 🙄

I suppose something had to replace the weekly Top Gear thread.

When I was growing up in the 70’s all the kids in my school could ride bikes. Balance bikes didn’t even exist. And none of us wore helmets 🙂

Were we especially talented back then? Of course not.

I don’t rate balance bikes personally. They’re completely unnecessary.

My eldest never used one. We just took his stabilisers off one day and spent an hour with him helping him learn to ride on just two wheels.

A few bumps and grazes, but picked it up pretty quickly. I was quite surprised. Maybe he’s just naturally got good balance or something.

Anyhow, buying a balance bike for him would have been a huge waste of time and money.

I would suggest it’s a waste for anybody.

Parents just need to spend some time helping their kids ride a bike. You don’t need any special equipment.

did you ask him if he was offended before getting offended yourself on his behalf?

This principle is what the majority of ‘political correctness’ is based on.

There are people employed specifically to decide who should be offended and by what, then issue orders to the rest of us that we’re not allowed to say z, y and z because it might cause offence (to people who have not even been asked if x, y or z actually would offend them).

It’s a subtle part of the state controlling what we’re allowed to think or say.

Similarly, H&S has been hijacked to become a subtle system for controlling our actions and movements.

It’s all the thin end of a wedge.

Maybe.

Loves shopping

Watches soaps

Sounds like a massive tool.

How about you tell them a story about a guy who died a few years ago, only to turn into a zombie and rise from the dead? Also add he could perform magic tricks, and was his own father.

🙄

Suddenly a Dawkins’ book looks a very sensible alternative…

Yes, pretending that (more than) a few years ago we were once a fish or some such that over time magically (and very conveneiently for all God-deniers) turned into a human being is an entirely sensible suggestion.

😉

I gave up with reaching the 100 press-ups goal.

It was useful for a few weeks to build up a good base of fitness & strength, but I wanted to bulk up a bit more so started doing weighted press-ups (no space in the house for my weights bench since children arrived).

If I have a tap on the end of my hosepipe and use it to fill my bucket just to save walking backwards and forewords, is that OK?

I usually just leave the tap running the whole time while I walk back and forth to refill my bucket. Saves me turning the tap on and off and on and off and on and off. This uses just as much water as a hosepipe, but wastes most of it. At least I’m adgering to the ‘rules’ though.

6.drawing water, using a hosepipe, for domestic recreational use;

This should cover washing a bike I reckon.

Nah.

Riding a bike is recreational.
Washing a bike is just a necessary evil resulting from the above.

However, I live up North where there’s loads of the H2O … plus, I always use a bucket and sponge cos I can’t be bothered getting the hose out

We need to know whether the question was asking which day is furthest from next Christmas, or which day is furthest from a Christmas … ?

British Gas do it free of charge if you’re a customer

British Gas do it free of charge if you’re not a customer too 8)

Focus on technique and posture before increasing weight.

Not sure aching muscles is really a good measure of having done an effective workout (?)

I do a very simple upper body routine at home a few evenings a week after the kids are in bed, consisting of 5 sets x25 weighted press-ups (elevated) & 5 sets x12 weighted pull-ups (chin-ups)

I don’t find my muscles particularly ache but they do feel a bit fatigued the next morning.

at least londoners care enough about the place they live to engage in the mayoral elections!

Which is strange considering how many other major uk cities have voted against having an elected mayor …

I think they’re a good idea myself.

Yes, he’s quite amusing, but FFS he’s useless!

Maybe, but I don’t live in the village of london so I’d rather see Boris fumbling around in the news than the bad Phil Collins lookalike that is Boring Ken …

At least with Boris you get a slightly amusing character. Ken is just a bit too ‘Steve Davis’.

Gisburn is very well looked after during adverse weather. During the winter it’s even regularly gritted to keep the trails clear. 😉

damo2576 – picture from Brazil (or somewhere S. America) ?

I remember those shower heads from Brazil when I was there a couple of years ago, although I never saw one quite as bodged as that!

it’s a Desire S, so no trackball … just a button on the side for volume up/down, with which the holding ‘down’ when pressing power on defaults to the HBOOT menu

it’s since powered up NOT in safe mode … I’ve no idea what’s going on now 😕

fingers crossed it’s ok

My favourite, so far, was staying in Patterdale.

From there, there’s a few options of routes up Helvellyn (or that general directin, even if you don’t want to go to the summit).

Or, there’s a classic loop along the south shore of Ullswater and up onto High Street, dropping back down to the valley bottom and a mile or two back into Patterdale.

From Patterdale, it’s only a fairly short hop by car to Whinlatter, or there’s some routes around (& up) Skiddaw.

There’s loads more, but the above’s what I’ve done thus far.

Update!

bawbag – you may be on to something.

If I power on whilst holding down the ‘volume up’ button the phone starts in safe mode.

I can’t then turn down the volume using the ‘volume down’ button, therefore it looks like a problem with the button.

The phone insists on running in safe mode though … this is either due to it thinking the button’s ‘stuck’ down, or some other damage caused by the original water ingress …

what should I say to them?

1. you support compulsory helmet-age
2. you want all bikes registered

” Are mose people now just ‘Technology Consumers’? “

Well …

I don’t know anyone who has built their own laptop, washing machine, HD TV, mobile phone, games console, mp3 player, digital radio, tablet, e-reader, car, dvd player, coffee machine, gps receiver, chainsaw, or any of the other things what are technology.

I don’t know anyone who properly understands how most of these things actually work, or how to fix them.

So the answer is probably “Yes”

Personally, I’m not interested in ‘technology’ beyond certain things begin useful tools or a necessary part of life.

For as long as I can remember I’ve woken up at least once a night for a whizz. The only time I don’t is if I’ve not drunk much throughout the day.

Everyone’s different.

I think it’s perfectly normal.

are those actuals or estimateds ?

Hmmm, good point, I don’t provide meter readings very often, & I think I’ve only had a visit by a meter reader twice in the year …

You haven’t left the immersion heater on, have you?

Ha! Nope, not got one (been there, done that in a previous house though)

And a heater too? Or is it a cold water tank?

Cold.

You could also just take a reading at the same time each day for a few days. That works surprisingly well

you need to take a daily meter read to see what your real consumption is. Do some reads before you go to bed and when you get up – so you can see what your base consumption is.

I shall do these things and see what’s what …

What?

Sometimes we have to wait for something a bit longer than we’d like?

Well, Boo, and indeed, Hoo

#firstworldproblems

No one pays Road Tax and now no one pays VED, it’s Car Tax now.

At least that’s less inaccurate than ‘road tax’ … although I really can’t see why we need a special phrase to use in place of ‘VED’, that means ‘VED’ but without actually saying ‘VED’ 🙄

Ultimately, if we all drove VED-exempt cars or rode bicycles, the govt would need to find some way of generating the lost ‘income’ from everyone paying VED

So, they’s either “reinvent” the VED scheme & charge individal owners, or implement a pay-to-drive scheme where you’re charged based on mileage driven.

Cyclists should still be exempt (biased, moi?), as I can’t see how a registration system for bikes could ever be financially viable considering how much a scheme would cost to implement, administrate & enforce.

Unless the cost was absorbed in the charges made to motorists.

Which would really make them happy.
And give them a real reason to resent cyclists.

I think £7 is fair enough for a day out

It’s all relative, and I think trail centre parking costs stack up very well against the price we pay for other hobbies/interests.

Whereas a parking charge of £7 sounds a lot on face value, in reality it’s peanuts for a day’s activity.

For example, my local mulitplex cinema charges around £7 for an adult to see a film … and that’s for only 2-3 hours ‘entertainment’.

The cost of a Premier League football match ticket is ridiculous for just 90+ minutes.

It’s arguable that the moon is made out of custard.

Only if scientific investigation suggests it’s probable.

I don’t remember any of the Apollo moon landings mentioning anything about finding milk/cream/egg yolk, and possibly sugar or vanilla.

You pray to god, you believe in it, so you immediately feel better about things because you now trust that ‘god will help’. You feel better, ergo prayer works, and the whole thing becomes self-sustaining.

Praying to God must be more than just making you “feel better”, otherwise anyone doing it regularly would soon give up because nothing actually changed through doing it … Christians pray to God because they believe it has the power to change things, and considering they continue doing it there must be something tangible that results, other than just “feeling better” about things for a while …

Science cannot prove or disprove anything that is not real. It can merely point to the probability of such being real.

In which case it’s arguable that the existence of the natural world around us etc points to the probability of a ‘creator’, God as an example … or you can keep on believing we all came about through a loads of convenient genetic mutations …

you want a room in a lake?

From my understanding of History (Classics Degree), people didn’t believe Jesus (if he even existed) was the first coming.

I think you’ll find that there is masses of evidence to verify that Jesus did exist (and not just Christian writings) … whether or not you believe he was the Son of God is an entirely different matter.

There’s a book written by a trained lawyer who was also (formerly) an atheist, who set out to disprove Jesus & his claims using his legal training … by the end of it, in the face of all the evidence, he’d convinced himself the complete opposite beyond any doubt.

If I can find/remember the details I’ll post them.