Thanks for those early suggestions of a pixel 4a. Just replaced an iPhone 7 with one. Loving the battery, screen and camera. Really pleased to leave iOS behind for Android 12.

The Canadian cop drama 19-2: series 2, episode 1. Felt like I held my breathe for the entire shooting! Peerless tension.

Also The Office (US) · S5 E13. Dwight’s fire drill is funny every time. While I prefer the Detectorists this single episode is supreme!

Really beautiful. Love the one of Porthtowan shapes where the wave’s droplets completely make you miss the out-of-focus surfer in the background.

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!

I have a 55 plate Focus and three kids under seven. Great size for us. We go camping every August and get everything in fine. Reasonably cheap and easy to repair.

We have the new Mondeo and Focus models at work. All estates. Much prefer the Focus for size, driver position and usability.

While I have an iPhone and iPad I find Apple Music deals confusingly with the stuff I’ve bought. I think this maybe due to the fact I buy some stuff off iTunes and then change the categories etc. Apple Music then duplicates this by suggesting I download the unadulterated original from the cloud. Whatever it does I don’t like it!

Spotify is great because it has been around so long. I have a really old iPod touch that even now works with an old Spotify app. However the Spotify catalogue and my own music don’t really work seamlessly together.

I’m with belfastflyer. Google Music does the best job of bringing my music and the wider catalogue together. It’s the only one I consistently pay for.

I really like the aesthetic of Tidal (the cheaper subscription). The text and photos associated with their playlists feel a lot better thought out.

As a teenager my folks visited Canada while leaving me at home. I of course abused the privilege and had parties most nights. I realised the house was a complete state so I thought I’d compensate by getting a big job done in the garden. There was a diseased tree that needed felling. A mate’s dad had just bought a chainsaw and I invited them to come and do us a favour.

My folks arrived at Gatwick exhausted from their time away. I picked them up after a few hour’s confusion which saw tempers fray. Then apparently my driving home was dangerous. At home they discovered their son had obviously fixed his bike in the lounge and had various bbqs which stunk the place out. In the garden my mates had hidden empty beer bottles in the trees etc that were still being found months later. The pièce de résistance was my mate and his dad still half way through the job. Saw dust and logs completely covered the finely manicured lawn and it emerged that I had authorised the taking down of their favourite willow tree and that the diseased one still needed dealing with!

Over twenty years later they still cannot laugh about it!

Last summer we stayed in a small village in Cornwall. The local playground was very well signposted. It took my kids a while to find it.

Four rusty swings and a picnic table. The grass was frequently over their heads.

Nevertheless we spent ages and ages there. At one point they said it was the best thing about the holiday (which was actually ace).

Yeah “One Ted Falls Out of Bed” is alright. I also don’t mind “The Snail and the whale”.

Definitely think Julia Donaldson just churns out stuff with little regard for the poor adults having to read out her stuff again and again and again.

Love the work of Jon Klassen though…

Watched it last night. Sorry if I’m mentioning any spoilers…

I saw the original before going out which heightened the anticipation.

Audience was ace. No munching or any ambient noise from them. Some Cineworld pass holders walked out as it obviously wasn’t their thing.

Saw it in a regular screen which worked really well. No need for any other shenanigans like 3D or moving seats!

Really, really loved the scene where we are introduced to the lady that crafts memories! Great moment.

The score worked well.

I’ve grown to like Gosling (I quite liked Driver as well).

The film did lovingly linger over its own landscapes a little too much. Outside Vegas was a bit rubbish but hologram Elvis was great in the shootout.

All sorts of interesting characters get introduced but then forgotten. Seems too much about the sequels in that respect!

I reckon a 7 or 8 out of 10 for me.

I think the fact it is three hours long means 2D is the way to go. After an hour I start fiddling with the glasses, looking around at everyone else looking weird with the specs and I also keep comparing scenes with and without the glasses!

Well £500 phones are never 2 x better than £250 ones so I imagine expectations aren’t quite that high.

I bought an SE with an Otterbox case last month. Brilliant size to use one handed and back camera is half decent as well. Should be fairly well supported by Apple in the years to come as it is a current model. Even been happy watching Netflix on it at a push.

Nothing to say about the iPhone X mind you. I can see people paying £1k for it though as they are so darn useful!!

I had spokes break on some road wheels. Ended up getting some directly from their UK distributer i-ride.

See their email to me below for original suggestion I get lbs to order from them:
Yes we are the distributor. We do currently have a mini spoke kit for those wheels in stock, a mini kit comes with 5 spokes, we don’t do the spokes separately though. You just need to go to a Fulcrum dealer and get them to order them from us for you. If you need to know where is the nearest place for you, log on to our website and click on stockists, then select Fulcrum and look through to find your nearest dealer. Thank you.

Mmm, how should i use a co2 cannister. I actually have some of these and like the idea of bike shed science experiments.

I dont even know what a hammer drill is :-/

The bike spent all night up side down having had wd40 sprayed through the bottle cage hole. Not the slightest movement.

Dont have a rubber mallet. Perhaps a proper hammer and a bit of wood might suffice?

Continue to ride the bike without the seat post collar but no joy yet. However i quite like the minimalist look 🙂

Ouch!

With the post now not salvageable surely you can use a more drastic measure. Advice on the net seems to quickly escalate to using a hacksaw on the offending post!

I’m still in denial, imagining I can save both frame and post….

Destroy the post or go without the bike for a while. Both seems quite drastic!

The thing is the post is at the right height for me. It seems it was the bottom bracket creaking so with that fixed the bike is silent again. I just don’t like the idea of the post being seized though….

Seemed to be doing fine on gingerly cycling in the middle of various quiet country lanes. Car came to overtake so I graciously moved to the side. Front wheel suddenly slipped out and the bike wildly veered off into the middle of the rode making the motorist sit up and pay attention!

Really glad I was in my work boots as both feet went down and I slid effortlessly to a stop without going over. Don’t know how anyone rides in cleats in this weather!

My Strava entry makes the moment brilliantly obvious!

While Google Music’s interface might be inferior I love the feature of adding your own albums.

I know Apple Music and Microsoft’s Groove have this function but the uploading just didn’t work half as well.

Also I like the little essays that Tidal music sometimes put on its own curated playlists. I also prefer their monochrome look.

Haven’t watched it in a while but I used to enjoy Charlie Sheen’s The Chase more than I should. Really loved the soundtrack and the cameo of Chili Pepper’s Flea!

Great critic quote from Wikipedia: “As an example of modern cinematic art, The Chase is an utter failure. As a character study, it can’t get past the comic book stage. As a tightly-plotted thriller, it’s missing about half the storyline. But, as a piece of unfettered, unpretentious entertainment, it hits the bullseye.”

I think some of you may of had some different wedding vows to me.

I’m sure I said something like “and all that I have I share with you”.

Perhaps I should have been a little more specific and given a %

Nice find.

Love the tree surgeons’ Unimogs around here. Always seem wildly over-the-top but an obvious move.

Once went on one as part of a canoeing expedition. Very agricultural, very cool!

Fantastic find. Thanks for sharing.

Yeah I thought I needn’t erect it to apply the Fabsil, but all advice suggested the tent needed to be under the correct tension.

That extended roller would have been perfect (and less hazardous to the tent).

I had wanted to create some sort of Mission Impossible scenario where I was suspended over the tent by rope but there were no suitable trees or cranes nearby!

There is no way an aerosol would have reached the top! Even as I was using the brush on a stick I was pleased I didn’t have to put a can on a stick and sort out a mechanism to spray the stuff as well.

Apparently the top is over 2 metres high…

The fabric still seems fine. The tear was made by ripping a great garden hoe through it so don’t feel it brings into question the material. The patches promise an almost invisible repair which I’m looking forward to. We only use the thing once a year, for five days. Isn’t camping supposed to be cheaper than other holidays?!?

Right after discussions with two local camping shops I ended up getting 2.5 litres of Fabsil. Had to paint it on myself as would have needed too many aerosols to do the same.

What seems to be neglected in these discussions is that my family tent, when erected as advised, is flipping difficult to paint! Took me ages to do it. I really hope this is not an annual thing!

To reach the top I attached the paint brush to a garden hoe. The brush fitted snugly on the metal fixture. Mostly worked well in the midday sun until I ripped a 130mm hole in the “canvas”. Off to the camping shop again for Kampa tear repair. £5 later I discover that, despite advice, the tent needs to be disassembled before the patch can be properly applied yet the Fabsil needs at least 6 hours to dry.

I won’t mention the hassle it took to get into my folks reasonable sized garden to have space for this in the first place as they were on holiday…

Was thinking the same about the seams actually. Came home today and the seams didn’t appear obviously deteriorated on further inspection. Will simply try re-proofing it and see if that works. I’m guessing a good hose down is a suitable equivalent for rain.

Any recommendations for proper seam sealant? Want to do it right first time!

Excellent. Success is possible and Fabsil and Mcnett are my friends.

Think it may be six, seven years old now. Maybe more?

I don’t know of anyone re-proofing an old tent with success.

Also it appears seams can be treated specifically with glue or tape. Wondered if anyone had experience of this?

I ride to work in my work boots so don’t have SPDs.

I found various blogs suggsting Shimano MX*0 Saints:
Shimano MX80 Saints on a road bike

I’ve had a pair since December and got on well with them.

I’ve also used various FWE pedal incarnations from Evans.

I got a cheap Amazon fire tablet and downloaded kids iplayer.

The kids iplayer app limits what they can access and allows downloading of all cbeebies favourites for offline usage.

Always enjoyed the Coen brother offerings…

Took the bike to the next town’s LBS and got the bottom headset cup replaced for £23 including labour. They did it really short notice as well.

Having fitted threadless headsets (without the recommended tools) on previous mountain bikes I was optimistic in solving this on my own. However I’m starting to think an LBS might be the best solution after all.

Evans cannot fit me in until next week.

Just spoken to the nearest independent shop. They can do it tomorrow (they’ll even try to just replacing the bearing). All hail the LBS!!!

The ball bearings seem to fit into a metal circle where each ball has an allocated alcove. I’d say half are missing!

But good old Andy from AD cycles and his legions of trays with assorted bits is a whole 10 miles away and I work right next to the Evans storehouse at Gatwick.

If I master the right technical jargon on STW now I can avoid Evans selling me a whole new vision of headset that I never wanted!

Once a cute girl at work claimed she could walk on her hands. She then proceeded to do it right there across the factory floor. I knew then I was in with a chance. Been married now for 13 years!