Just having a quick break with a cup of tea and thinking about this some more…

Say I went with a Sunrace 11 speed cassette with 46-11, which mech/goatlink combo would work best? Medium or long cage?

Athleteshop have the Sunrace CSMX8 for £36 quid which is a bit less than the Shimano 42-11, but the goat link is nearly 30 quid on top.

Should have stuck with 3×10 :-)

Thanks for all your replies so far. The main reason I’m contemplating 1×11 is the need to sort out my boy’s bike at the same time, otherwise I’d probably just buy the Sunrace cassette and make it work (even if it needs a goatlink thing).

The other thing that has occurred to me is maybe I just need to get fitter so my legs cope with the climbs better, but I don’t want to damage my knees in the process!

Or of course I could just put my front mech back on and stop trying to justify spending on new shiny stuff…

Too many choices!

For under the swing and trampoline, I went for rubber bark as it ticked all the boxes for us – easy to put down, doesn’t rot or mulch like normal bark chippings, the local cats don’t like to do their business near it and its safe for the kids to land on. It also seems to stay where you want it without blowing everywhere which is an added bonus.

I got ours from here: http://www.terrasofta.co.uk/rubber-play-mulch/ about 5-6 years ago and it still looks like new.

From memory it turned up in a dumpy bag and we just had to put down a liner and rake it into place. Job jobbed!

More “congratulations” redirects this morning. 4 in the space of a few minutes trying to post a for sale ad so I have given up for now. Anyone wanna buy a lightly used bmx? 😀

Just a bit of positive feedback to balance the negative, I’ve had no popups or redirects at all this evening so far. This morning I had about 6 in a row a few seconds after opening each thread. I gave up and went to work instead!

Could be a coincidence, but it certainly seems better than earlier…

I agree, they have so much energy you can’t help but enjoy it. Everyone from old timers sat on the side to young un’s dancing at the front all having a great time! Would love to see them live again. Some of their covers are better than the originals IMHO.

Hayseed Dixie. My dad loves a bit of banjo and we took him to see them live in my home town. It was ace!

The little bearded guy with the dungarees didn’t stop all night. I bet he doesn’t get arm pump…

Some of their stuff is a bit “out there”

Jamie – Member

Poopscoop, u ok Hun?

I think it’s been demonstrably proven they are fine, and are completely disinterested in this thread.

Genuine LOL! I should have turned this off hours ago but I think i am addicted to this thread. Comedy gold! :lol:

CharlieMungus – Member

It was me!!!!!

hahaha!

Bugger :-(

Just wanted to be the first person to celebrate 50 pages but I was a bit premature just now, so I will try again:

Thanks everyone for making me lose at least 5 hours to this so far…

I read that as Bell stroker helmet. Fnarr fnarr :lol:

I don’t really get time to play games nowadays but quite often have a quick game on Fifa with my son.

I fancied buying a game for me to play when the kids are in bed and the wife is watching some guff on tv so I bought Dirt rally. Its actually really good and I can play for an hour or so every week or two. It has events which consist of about 4 stages so easily doable in a short space of time and there are online games too. It also has a rallycross bit if you fancy racing against other cars.

Its a good mix of pick up/put down gameplay with enough progression to make you want to play again and get faster cars etc.

I bought some Adidas Terrex a few months ago from http://www.adidasspecialtysports.co.uk/

The website has a nifty lookup where you can select a brand+style of shoe that you know fits you and it advises on the size you need based on your selection. It calculated I needed an 11.5 which feels spot on.

They’re also really comfy for off the bike. I did a round of golf in mine on Sunday as I forgot my golf shoes and they were great in wet grass etc!

From memory, if you sign up for the newsletter you can get a discount code before you buy. I got mine for £80ish.

Edit: Sorry, just checked and they only have stock up to 12.5 at the moment so my comment is about as much use as a thin pair of shoes!

Any other options or is sonos the best solution? They have a 3 bed semi so don’t need a massively powerful set up.

Whitemead is in a good spot for the trails. A gentle pootle along part of the family trail and you are at the start of the fun stuff.

It used to be a csma site with lodges and camping for caravans and motorhomes, but I think it has changed hands since I last stayed there. Nice pool and sauna etc too if you like that sort of thing.

I thought sonos was just a wireless speaker? What would they need if they wanted to play a cd or radio via a sonos setup?

I’ve just checked again and there are now 4 left online where other people must have added to their basket and not bought it…

Thanks for the PSA. I added one to my basket on my phone, but the browser died looking up my address :evil: Out of stock by the time I fired up my laptop, but luckily the 1 I originally had in my basket must have timed out so it popped back up after some frantic refreshing of the page!

A bit late to ask, but do you think this will be any good for on the helmet?

After testing last night, may I suggest Caramel Shortbread as a cheaper alternative to an electric motor? Caramel Shortbread = Rocket Fuel!

Ooh that sounds delicious, Momo. Any chance you could share the recipe please?

Looking at the ingredients, I can see I had a massive sugar hit so no wonder I was flying today :-)

This is the original recipe, however she makes double the shortbread to the amount of caramel listed as you then get a better ratio.

INGREDIENTS:
115g/4oz butter
175g/6oz plain flour
55g/2oz caster sugar
200g/7oz plain chocolate (Cadburys) broken into pieces

CARAMEL:
175g/6oz butter
115g/4oz caster sugar
3 tbsp golden syrup
400g/14oz canned condensed milk

METHOD:
Preheat oven to 180c/350f/G.M.4.
Grease shallow cake tin (she uses a big roasting tin)
Mix butter, flour and sugar in a bowl or food processor until it begins to bind together.
Press it into the tin and smooth the top. Prick all over with a fork to stop it bubbling up.
Bake for 20-25 mins.
Meanwhile, make the caramel. Put butter, sugar, syrup and condensed milk into a heavy based saucepan. Heat gently until the sugar has melted. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 6-8 minutes, stirring, until very thick.
Pour over the shortbread and chill it in the fridge for 2 hours, or until it’s firm.
Melt the chocolate, then spread over the caramel. Leave it in the fridge until it is set.
Top tip: Cut it into chunks before the chocolate gets too hard or it is a bugger to chop it!

Once set, eat a big slab and then go for a super charged bike ride!

I shall have to ask the good lady wife and report back. Her caramel shortbread is famous amongst our friends, family and colleagues so I deffo recommend making some… I’ll post the recipe in a bit.

A customer of mine had sat broadband installed about 15 years ago as the alternative was dialup. When it worked it was ok, but was about as reliable as an old reliant robin. As soon as it rained, snowed or a bird landed on the dish, the speed dropped to a snails pace or the connection dropped completely.

Things may be better nowadays, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the same issues still exist.

As an aside, their neighbour was a scaffolding company called Dick’s Erections which always used to make me chuckle! Yes, I have been drinking this evening, but true story!

cable tie around his phone handset cord so it makes a loop. When he answers the phone, he will have to put his face right on the phone to be able to speak. Especially cruel if a customer calls in before they notice.

Subtle ones are the best, e.g. blu-tac in the castors of his chair so it won’t move, turn his drawers round if they are on wheels and hide the key.

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. Being selfish, I’m inclined to book something for just us and the kids but the wife had her heart set on going to Greece with her family so is really upset.

Hey ho, 1st world problems and all that but stressful nonetheless!

We did look at Villas, but if I’m honest I wasn’t that keen. I only get one holiday a year and as much as I like my in-laws I also like my own space to chill out for a few hours by ourselves.

Saying that though, I think at this point in time I would take anything that is offered to me!

I don’t really know to be honest. I’ve always booked things myself online and never used a travel agent. This year my Grandfather-in-law organised it for the extended family and he used the local travel agent as she is a family friend and he doesn’t know what online means!

Hopefully we can sort something out via the TA but not looking promising at the moment.

Last minute offers don’t seem to exist any more. Just looking whilst working :-) and prices are between £5000 and £15000 for 1 room for 2 weeks not including flights.

The company in question is Thomas Cook and I wouldn’t touch them with a sh*tty stick! Customer service is non-existent when things go wrong it seems.

Had a quick Google and it is quite a common occurrence with people waiting months for a satisfactory response.

The TA is a family friend so she is pulling out all the stops but its like talking to a brick wall when contacting TC.

@martinhutch – thanks for the link. At least we should be able to get a refund if nothing else.

We have been contacting as many hotels etc as possible since Monday with no luck so far.

One lovely lady has no availability but this morning she has offered to ring round a few places for us to see what she can find. Fingers crossed!

I can sort of understand how this can happen, but the lack of any support or offer of an alternative from the holiday firm has really p*ssed me off! Grrrr!

I didn’t really fancy the black ones, so i went for the blue ones with 15% off by signing up to the newsletter on the home page. That reduced them down to £80 with free delivery. Ordered last night and apparently they will be with me on Monday which ain’t bad for free delivery!

Just draw a big circle around them and then stamp on them:

Ant in circle video clicky linky

How do you get Pikachu on a bus? POKÉMON!

Why are pirates called pirates? Cos they Arrrrr!

Always makes me chuckle as it reminds me of my lad when he was about 6 waiting for me to come home from work to tell me all excited. That’s my boy I thought! Now he cringes every time I tell a shit joke

I’d second the vote for Osprey packs. I’ve got the 14l Raptor which is great but a bit small for your criteria. How about the 20l Syncro for less than £60 if you already have a water bladder:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/osprey-syncro-20-backpack/rp-prod132355?gs=1&gclid=CIDz0YDfkc0CFYZuGwodEPYNLg&gclsrc=aw.ds

I agree with Rachel, but if you are looking in advance check out Zoho. Its cloud based but is free to start with and then you pay as you expand it and need more users/features.

It’s really flexible and pretty much everything can be adjusted to suit, even the layout of the screens.

I’ve used loads of CRMs in the past and this one stands out from the crowd for small businesses.