good tips on the freezer- there's a whole load of sloes near me, they were still there last night when i wandered past with the dog, so will go snaffle them today.

those vodka tomatoes sound ace-i'm off to the shop!

Brandy; sounds good. I'm interested if anyone has an idea of what to do with rhubarb!?

Fascinating fact:

Statistically, nine out of ten people enjoy gang rape…

I'm crap at doing links so I won't bother; There's plenty of riding to be had here, a tad more domesticated than West yorks though!

The bits listed by jeff above are mainly focussed around the south of Reading, apart from the RATZ; they organise a series of local races mainly. There's plenty of riding to be had in the Chilterns as well: regular night rides go from:

Mountain High (bike shop in Pangbourne)

Trailjunkies (Bikeshop in West Berks)

All merely an internet search away… send me an email if you're looking for a bimble around when you get here!?

yes, I saw one last week in Mountain Trax, Berkshire. (Siree)

It is a lovely Blue colour.

It looks like a sleeker P7 with a low stack headtube. -Reminiscent of a steel XC race frame, just a bit slacker on the headangle, and sloping toptube.

Didn't have a play on it or ask about the price, as I'm happily in a long-term relationship with a Cotic Soul, that just keeps giving…

FYI- there's a shop ride heading out of Mountain High in Pangbourne on Sturday morning. Might be worth a go?

I think i'm busy, but will let you know!

Ditto for Ale: The Retreat, The Nag’s Head and The Hopleaf for a game of bar Billiards and Hopback brews.

Train out to Pangbourne/Goring and ride back? You could hire one of these, http://www.oybike.com (they have a location near the train station) and bike back along the river. The Catherine wheel in Goring is nice, as well as The Swan and The Ferryboat in Pangbourne. (I don;t know what the bikes are like, but it seems to work?)

Alternately, walk downstream out of the town centre on the River, you’ll go through Thames Valley park and end up in Sonning, where if you follow the footpath up past the church, just after the lock, will lead to The Bull at Sonning. It’s not cheap, but another fine location for eyeing the chi-chi ladies…

Don’t know when you’ll be around, but i might have a spare bike, if you happent to have bought SPD shoes !? my email is in profile.

Appropriately for a sunny friday, with a weekend of riding ahead:

The Cyclist (by Louis Macneice)

Freewheeling down the escarpment past the unpassing horse
Blazoned in chalk the wind he causes in passing
Cools the sweat of his neck, making him one with the sky,
In the heat of the handlebars he grasps the summer
Being a boy and to-day a parenthesis
Between the horizon’s brackets; the main sentence
Is to be picked up later but these five minutes
Are all to-day and summer. The dragonfly
Rises without take-off, horizontal,
Underlining itself in a sliver of peacock light.

And glaring, glaring white
The horse on the down moves within his brackets,
The grass boils with grasshoppers, a pebble
Scutters from under the wheel and all this country
Is spattered white with boys riding their heat-wave,
Feet on a narrow plank and hair thrown back

And a surf of dust beneath them. Summer, summer —
They chase it with butterfly nets or strike it into the deep
In a little red ball or gulp it lathered with cream
Or drink it through closed eyelids; until the bell
Left-right-left gives his forgotten sentence
And reaching the valley the boy must pedal again
Left-right-left but meanwhile
For ten seconds more can move as the horse in the chalk
Moves unbeginningly calmly
Calmly regardless of tenses and final clauses
Calmly unendingly moves.

And the sublime John Cooper Clarke: (loads of his stuff is on youtube, performed by him, if you prefer to listen/watch and his work only really works in performance.)

Haiku:

TO-CON-VEY ONE’S MOOD
IN SEV-EN-TEEN SYLL-ABLE-S
IS VE-RY DIF-FIC

thanks all,

The comment about a hire bike for a sportive is a fair one. Still, i’m quite standard sized, so if i took my saddle and pedals it should fit OK. -As long as they have a decent workshop ethic!

Still, i’d be taking it out a coupleof days beforehand to get fettled…!

Just to add- i’ll be riding in t’alps, so anywhere which would hire road bikes from well known MTB spots would be good- in fact, the only thing certain about this trip is the Etape, so all info welcome?

Have had two rides around the Chilts in the past week, and I have been full of smiles and courtesy for all. I find the response is either smiles back, or they get even more irritated! :-)

Amusingly though- The other day a pal of mime was loitering at the bottom of Grimms ditch on the ridgeway, which is of course footpath, with the intention to push up a bit and take some photos. (very bluebelly!) As there are plenty of “No Cycling” signs there, he thought he’d wait until a group of greying ramblers were well clear before wandering up.

As said group passed, one old boy enthusiastically said “You really should go up there, the bluebells are magnificent!” :lol:

I’ve taught for about 9 years now, in that time i’ve been in both private and state schools. Private usually sounds good, and you have a lot more freedom on what you can teach but the parents can be truly painful at times, and it can be embarassing how sheltered/complacent their children are! State tends to involve more hassle from the government instead, but if you’re in a well balanced catchment area/ have supportive departmental and senior management, then it’s great.

I found the first two years or so to be hard, and it’s about a year normally in any school before you really establish yourself; hopefully by then you have a certain rapport with pupils which proceeds you (if you’ve done it right!), making life much easier. Marking will always be an issue (I’m an english teacher, so a lot of reading!) But being fairly pragmatic about it and it can be minimised down to one or two nights a week. This means you can be on the bike by 4pm at least 2 nights a week. (I’ll be hitting trails by 3 this afternoon!)

I love it. Kids are a sight more entertaining and accomodating, (especially the cheeky ones) than a lot of office staff i’ve worked with previously! The holidays are brilliant, although they are at the times when prices are at their peak. -A bit irritating when you look at ski deals for the first week of term after christmas!

I’m always bemused by this comment about “the real world” though? It sounds a bit boring; not somewhere i want to go… :wink:

sleater-kinney- good call.

Apparently named after the sign for a turn off on a highway in Washington state. -Can’t think of a British equivalent whihc would sound so good…!?

Grandaddy
Sparklehorse
Giant Sand
Robert Wyatt.

just found this thread as I was looking for inspiration of somewhere new to ride in t’Chilterns!

I live in Pangbourne, near to Reading, it’s on the trainline into London and reading itself, but on the river, foor of the Chiterns, and a damn sight more laid back than the rah-rah joys of Henley.

Good to know more people on here live in the area!

Got a Kona Kula deluxe frame via ebay, built up with 100mm rebas, nice wide flat bars- it’s pretty racy but ideal for a couple of hours on local trails.

Climbs superbly, but angles are relaxed anough for a few rocky downhills, etc.

thanks all, i didn’t know bikefax did individual route to download! -has anyone tried the route over Cadair Idris recently? Any advide on places to stay, drink, eat? I was looking at the Eagles in Penmachno?

i’m doing it; any locals have tips about the climbs? Did my first one this year a couple of weeks ago, with fairly poor preparation so some local knowledge would be good!

In a drunken conversation once, the topic of “would you rather suck a man’s knob, or take it up the gary?” came up.

Contrary to popular expectation, the final decision was that most people would rather take it up the bum: The reasoning?

Being the reciever would involve pain, but sucking someone off to completion, you’d have to put some effort and skill into it… 8O