I’ve got a spare (redundant) VIP Bottle Cage Clips thing.
Might work – like a pair of zip-tied clips that you then screw a bottle cage into. Yours for token amount if you want to try it out..

Treated myself to kippers for breakfast on a multi-day trip, at small hotel in Strontian, just before cycle up and over to Pollach. Love them, but they are the breakfast that lasts a day kind of thing :/

Wait till she has spanked all his money on the poker Table.

from Wikipedia..
As of 2008, her total live tournament winnings exceeds $1,200,000

not bad. She was also on HIGNFY, and put down Ian Hislop pretty well IIRC.

congratulations! I too was staff for about the same timespan – 20 odd years – until being made redundant – would never go back now.

I guess it depends on your level of income and complexity of keeping accounts, being paid and so on. Also liability if anything goes wrong.

I hemmed and hawed and eventually came to the conclusion that I’m happy paying share of income tax – so have settled on the self employed / sole trader route – for simplicity – so no umbrella company, no company structure, simply pay NIC and submit tax return as usual at the end of the year. That may not be suitable for you though.

Dalwhinnie – Loch Ericht – Culra bothy – bag the Ben Alder Munro cluster. sorted!

have a look at the Lumicycle sale, too.

SyncBack, Genie Timeline

/ Time Machine /

Have variants of the Ritchey CPR (Compact Pocket Rescue) still kicking about somewhere. The really old ones :)

alternative is a general set of allen keys, and a chain tool separately until you know what you need..

IIRC as well, the iPhone (as opposed to the iPod Touch) will have the GPS capability.

“if you see a bandwagon — it’s too late”

Shares are a possibility, but I know next to nothing about them, and would probably make a huge loss like most of my mates have

I don’t mind a bit of risk, as long as the possible returns is high enough.

I’m not sure what you’re saying here to be honest. If it was £4k “not doing very much” – but that would be required at some point – I’d be looking at safe as houses investments, rather than get rich/poor schemes. If you /need/ £4k back at some point, then you can’t take risks to get returns I’m afraid.

Your tutor is (with all due respect) either trying to scam you or is believing the hype that *he* bought into. Whisky casks as an investment were a fad about a decade or more ago, only top quality whisky will *really* hold its value and many distilleries have stopped selling casks to the public – leaving you with the ones that are desperate for the cash. If you do that, think of it as a hobby rather than a source of income – and you’re unlikely to get back your cash “on demand” as it were – if the whisky market took a dip and you needed your cash, you might face severe problems getting *any* back in short term.

no different to War Loans or even Premium Bonds (really)..?

sachets of vinegar from cafes. seriously.

MapMyRide might be a useful place to look, Endomondo or Strava as well – you can usually serach round about an area for route ideas.

I suppose that’s where a ‘cross bike might be handy, could nip up a couple paths and be in a different set of locations. But as to specific route advice, sorry can’t help :(

holy moley. mine has to weather outside (not by design, built wood shed too small).

.. I’m thinking poss. Danish .. ?

Imperfect, sure, but build (I have to say) really nice, solid looking and solidly built cars – have had an old style 900 which never set the heather on fire with performance but drove great – in fact drove better the more you hussled it – and could carry five adults plus kit for a weeks skiing holiday with no a glance.

now got a ‘newer’ 900 (pre 9-3) and some of the nice touches are missing (heated seats, heated windscreen washer lines) but it’s solid, decent economy and looks nicely understated – and still quite elegant I have to think, how much can you say of its brethren cars from 1996?

… I am not an architect …

Coast to Coast – I’ve done (on singlespeed, natch) from Ardnamurchan Point through to Montrose – through Ardnamurchan to Strontian. Over to Glenfinnan, up Great Glen to South Laggan. Then over Corrieyairack, loop round Laggan Wolftrax, and on to Newtonmore. Then through Glen Feshie, through to Braemar and past Balmoral to Ballater. Then over through Glen Tanar, towards Edzell and eventually out to Montrose.

druidh – like the pic. high road above Horgabost if I’m not mistaken?

if it’s aimed at the outdoors market – walking, biking – then I’d say a washing m/c with quite possibly a dryer as well would be much appreciated..

I’ve stayed in places that were aimed at the outdoor leisure market that didn’t have a washing machine or a decent drying area or place to leave wet / muddy stuff – and it was a royal pain..

again, for bikes, security of location – if not in the flat (and that wouldn’t keep it clean long) then a secure shed nearby.

“Navy – Bone” — like it!

yes. of course.
stuff you mentioned is all small change really, as others have said..

MTFU :)

makes sense, usually get more for the individual bits than the whole..

you *were* talking about bikes, no? :)

not really. I sold a Golf GTI (to a work mate) with 105k on the clock, really thought it had had it (mind you, I bought it with 50k and the seller assured me *then* that it was on last legs). Work mate nursed it for another 15k I think.

Current car – Saab 900 – is on 104k and I’d be very sorry to see it go. Certainly no qualms about keeping it running. And as above for toby1, I’d rather keep it running than shell out on repayments for a new used car, with the uncertainties.

absolutely. agreed. although my parents didn’t discuss the donor / cremation stuff with e, I think they’d discussed it between themselves. and were very much of the “draft a will in good time” school.

something we’ve managed to do as well; comprehensive coverage for most eventualities. don’t forget the Power of Attorney side for ageing parents or indeed for yourselves / when the children are around but not mature.

any savings that generate income (bonds, interest and so on) – you can gift them to your spouse, and then they’d be clear to get that income gross (or reclaim it at the end of the tax year). this doesn’t apply to company dividends though (which already have the tax taken off and you can’t reclaim it).

So, building society account (R85 form to claim gross interest) and treasury gilts.

or frame mounted bag – Revelate Designs or similar – use one all the time to keep the bulky, heavy stuff (tube, pump, tools) leaving bottle cage for water, and a small backpack for food, maps and stuff.

Revelate Designs[/url]

Something like the Tangle, for example, is just great at swallowing the bulky heavy stuff.

whilst the Army gets to keep me in Nottingham

hm… any chance you could get a posting to Kinloss, now being re-invented as an Army base?

local MTB club – Moray MTB club[/url] which is really just a placeholder. Easiest to log on to the forum – Moray MTB forum[/url] – and ask away.

decent riding of all sorts available – XC, steeper stuff, Fochabers and Ben Aigen trails close by (well, close enough) and a local road club as well – Elgin CC. Not really too much cyclocross action I’m aware of.

local riding is varied, well drained wooded stuff nearer the coast, higher barren moorland stuff into the Speyside hinterland. Plenty local roads and pretty quiet, just need to watch out for the boy racers and tractors :)

sounds like your solicitor doesn’t want to upset them, or their solicitor – rather than acting in your interests. he should also have flagged up to them, and to you, the likely time span for mortgage applications.

Indeed, I’d be looking for another solicitor, one that you can trust, because it sounds that this one has lost the element. Also get the mortgage provider to guarantee that the cash will turn up on the right day – it didn’t, with our first joint mortgage, for some reason, and because it was unexpected, we ended up with an eye-watering overdraft for about a week.

good luck.

hm. not on FaceTube, haven’t been in the Pentlands for 6 years (though first started biking there about 20/25 years ago); but sounds like a really good idea.

I guess I’m totally out of touch with what bits *really* need doing (and get the traffic to justify the effort) but Black Hill would be good, Maidens / Phantoms juction was always a bit of a mess and it doesn’t look to have improved any.

well, my uncle (ok, great uncle) was the man standing beside the queen when she launched the QE2, impressive footage of that launch, right across the Clyde from what I could see – I’m sure they even had to dig out some of the opposite bank to take the ship..

http://youtu.be/MmS8g6lnZOk – starts at 1.45, bowler hat raised aloft, 1.55

Thule aero bars on my car for the last 6 or more years (not permanently!)
Easy to take on and off, and to fit bike carriers to –

Roofbox as above – very very good (I think it’s a mate of RobS’ that runs it…)

Altera (think that’s the name) towbar carrier from RB is good; as for a roofbox we wended up with Kamei one which is bloody excellent, long and narrow enough to take at least one bike on the bars alongside..

LBS has Tifosi sunglasses. Been very pleased with the quality and fit of them.

check inside, in case any of the baffle bricks have dropped. A small bed of ash may assist flow rate, obviously a big pile is not so good. Obstruction in chimney – bird nest (unlikely) / fallen bit of masonry.

But if it goes well at the start, it should keep on track. Possibly a leak, or cold spot – our problem stove vents into a chimney flue cavity, on the north side of the house – it was a real pain to light, and was finally fixed with an extra pipe into the flue proper – bypassing the large (cold) space above the stove..

Fitted one in the garden shed; loved it so much for working beside that put another three in the house. Last few weeks been fantastic, cut heating bills by some amount; wood source: local fuel merchants, sawmill offcuts, timber yard offcuts and a couple of local friends with fallen trees that need clearing..

Once I get pictures organised will put them up..

yes, I seem to recall touting about 50 copies of the mag round Edinburgh; also my work had sent me, with a hire estate car, down to London and back on the launch weekend – or close to it. Slight detour saw me collect several boxes of mags from Mark on way down, try to flog some of them at the Panasonic trade show I attended, then drop off several boxes round the Lakes on the way back… happy days.

Doctor Rad – hello there fella !!

Callum

If it helps build a picture of how many are still out there and undelivered – no magazine here, in Elgin.

well done Keith, good effort I reckon. A few folk off at the water bars..

Thoroughly enjoyed the day out, we progressed round at an "all day" pace and were pleased to come in at 6h 31m. Deliberately held back at the start, was quite a sight to look along the WHW stretch to see so many bikers. Must have been right at the tail end by then, however after the river crossing (incidents galore) looked back down the path, and saw a steady stream of folk pushing up the path, on this side and the other side of the river – so bit of a boost.

Partner had been feeling rotten all week, so credit to Roberta for getting round at all. First time I've seen a 1000 yard stare 1 mile into an event :)

Top event, the toll of holding so many events on the same day took its toll I think – was expecting a bit more marshall and stops to be seen, to be honest.

I'd add my name to the list of "interested of STW" folk.

The frame bag is very interesting, but with so many variations its surely a fraught area.
I'd be looking keenly at a seat bag for flexibility, to be honest.

Add me to the list!

Slioch clothing used to do made to measure Gore-tex, don't know if they still do.

http://www.slioch.co.uk/
Update – looks like it's the same name, different employee.