There is currently a pretty nasty virus that starts with massive fatigue which may or may not develop in to a more noticable heavy cold. A local school had 70 kids off with it and local hospital and doctors have reported many cases with a similar presentation. Some people get away with 48 hours of pain killers and lots of rest, others have flue like reactions for a week.

Best of luck. I got away with 48 hours, but the kids were off a bit longer.

Before you do this there is actually safe different thinking about why you are doing it. It is not actually safer, and in some cases can be more harmful. What you are doing is giving an outdoor soft area, when most of the rest of the world is not soft. When the kids play, especially if they ar small, there is less energy to absorb so they learn that falling off stuff is dangerous and can hurt, but not too bad. If it is not risky then they can take bigger risks ( higher climb/jump/fall) and the risks are bigger I am not saying that you deliberately hurt your kids, but that they learn to play and they also learn what risk is. If they do not do this then then fail to learn about a key lesson: falling off stuff can hurt. If it is grass then it hurts more sometimes than others, if it is dry or wet, etc.

Grass is also self mending, looks good and generally not a place where cats/foxes/rodents want to poo and live. It also costs less as well. Just a thought.

To be honest I think that a lot of psychology related “experiments” are flawed compared to something like a physical experiment where your parameters are very tightly controlled. If they we to do it properly, depending on the initial criteria, we could probably get more from the results. If they have succeeded in anything it is to have got the discussion going, but I fear that it is in the wrong direction. We are now damned if we don’t wear a helmet (you could have taken more precautions) and damned if you do (you were taking more risks).

Personally I would rather people took more risks and learnt about where they are really at risk that seeing all of these perceived risks. I posted a link on the story about growing up in a risk averse society which actually shows why we need kids to learn about risk rather than be shielded from everything. Otherwise we all end up in cotton wool suits scared of our own shadow.

It is not bad science as you know that they know what they are wearing. What you are looking at is risk perception. You could do the same experiment by telling them that they are wearing a hat or a helmet and I would doubt that the result would be different. What is being studied, in a lab, is whether you would take more risks if you think you are more or less safe, with particular reference to a helmet. You could argue whether this is actually relevant in the real world as it is not a real test. The research points to our innate decision making processes, especially as we are always looking to make things safer.

In the case of the car we have had designers make the car much safer for the objects inside it, but has this made the car safer? On the surface the horrific accidents that used to occur, prior to key safety measures such as compulsory seat belts and air bags, the survival rate for those inside are much better, but what has it done to the behavior of the driver? We all know that we see road rage/aggresive driving, driving whilst distracted (phones, etc) and the lack of consideration for other road users. What this means is that we are more likely to take more risks because we feel safer.

If you transfer that argument to a bike helmet the question posed is do you take more risks when wearing a helmet? For most of us this is not the key question as we know what the hazards and likelihood of an accident are and we are using the helmet as the control measure to, hopefully, make the result of the accident less severe. In a more general context this is not what is being looked at. Most bike users, and therefore it is assumed, are helmet wearers so does this mean we take more risks? I am not sure that this is necessarily the case, but this research does pose the question whether we would be safer not wearing helmets.

Sorry for the ramble, but the reason we put control measures on perceived risk rather than actual risks is something that interests me a bit more than it should……

I think we have the right watch. The case that you have is a plated brass one compared to the silver one that I found and the gold one on poshtime. It looks to be a very robust watch so no surprise it is still working. A quick service (lube the bearings) and that should just keep on going. Nice family heirloom.

Pretty sure that is a Rotary movement. They introduced the winged wheel logo in 1925 so that seems to fit your time line. Looks like this one?

Everything from scratch here as well. That includes bread, stock, spice pastes, etc. We do make large batches of staples and reheat from frozen. A load of things are made from leftovers and we have very little food waste. We both work full time and one of the best things that I have found is that the kids now take part and make some meals themselves (12 and 9 yo). We have just been decorating and the kids took it upon themselves to make lunch and dinner whilst we we working so this is a definite result.

Most of this comes from two drivers: being tight and liking the taste of food. The contents of a lot of prepared food is eye popping (palm oil, just don’t start me on that one, it is in everything!). My wife has a very restrictive diet and the best way to cope with this is to make all our food from scratch. I still manage to waste time one here so it can’t take too much time 😉

Have you tried woolen shorts and a real chamois? I started with those years just when Lycra and synthetic inserts were coming out. That was not a fun thing to ride in. However one habit from starting out has stuck: chamois cream. Always use it on the insert and skin. Sorry, too much info…..

Mtb spds as well here. I have used both look and shimano road pedals, but for some random reason they knacker my knees. I have got disco slippers which are spd compatible (I think Pearl Izumi tend to have both road and mob drilling on their shoes last time I looked) so if you fancy looking the part once you get in to the road bike then you can hide the fact you are still using spds that way.

Ride what you like is the bottom line, but if you are going to walk anywhere then your mtb shoes will be much better. I actually started wearing cleats when we used to strap ourselves in to thE pedals so anything is better than those massive lumps on the bottom of your shoes 🙂

Young kids, boys in particular, benefit so much from just being outside. Sometimes it is even better if the weather is crap because when you come in you get a hot chocolate and feel like you have earned it. If you can find a bit of woodland to play in, wellies on and good waterproofs with snacks to keep going and you can just mess around there for whole day. As long as you have some imagination to make stuff, find weird bits of wood or bugs then you can show them a whole new world. The biggest thing of all at that age is sticks. You can play swords, build dens, make boats (make an outline of a boat and pretend all the rest of the area is shark infested. If he breaks the stick, you can get a new one. Amazing things sticks, I must go and whittle something soon before I get withdrawal symptoms.

Once you have got him used to stuff like this then a little fire and marshmallows can keep them going as well. If you want to make this the best experience ever make the fire with him. It only has to be tiny, but the fact that you can do this sort of stuff outside makes it a place of wonder for a four year old.

Best of luck.

I would be wary of putting cushioning at the top of the list when looking at trail shoes. In fact I have done some of the these events in barefoot style of shoe and what you need is grip. What I would be looking out for is the hardness of the sole and the harder, long lasting, lugs on some shoes just have no grip on hard surfaces. I used to use Saucony and Walsh as my two go to brands, but I have now tried loads and I have to look at the sole pattern and grip to decide what to but.

As for only having a month to “break them in” I would not worry too much. If you go for one run and they are fine (no hot spots, stay done up and grip correctly in the same terrain as you are racing in) then you will be good to go.

Just for reference all of my running is now off road and the amount of cushioning that you actually need (especially in sloppy conditions) is zero. You spend a lot of time correcting with your core and all of the cushioning you need some from your own body. As there is less of the repetitive nature of road running you recruit other muscle groups as well, particularly core muscles, to control your position. One of the key skills to learn with regard to this is running down hill. If you can roll with the hill and not stop on each step then you limit the force through your ankles, knees and hips, but you need to be able to trust that your shoes will grip.

You could have a look at Christopher Ward. They do some interesting stuff around your budget.

I have one of these

except it is the team bike with Columbus EL custom tubing8 speed shifters on the levers and Paris Roubaix rims.

It is my favourite bike to ride by far and it feels great that it is still ridden and not in a museum somewhere.

One thing to factor in is that there has been very low amounts of sunlight throughout November and December. That means that if you are quite active and do get out and about a bit then you can suffer from the lack of sunlight. We are not talking about full on SAD, but that vulnerability coupled with a virus can wipe you out for a while.

If you can take every opportunity to get out in the sun, when it appears. That we some exercise (obviously assuming you are on an mtb forum you might do some 😉 ) the endorphins and fresh air should help you feel better.

PS My wife has cfd and if you can do exercise and not end up in bed for a couple of days then I reckon you are ok.

The National Parks issue is a bit of a Red Herring. What is far more important is the fact that they are looking to frack through some of our drinking water!

In the South Downs they are looking to put those pipes through the only drinking water supply for miles around. So when asked if you want to risk that what do you think the answer should be.

Add to that it is using another fossils fuel and not a renewable resource then the risks start to stack up against using any of this gas as a resuorce.

Ok, this will probably be a bit long as I have been searching for the perfect waterproof solution for sustained outside use. As background we spend about 6-8weeks a year living outside. This can be camping and working so you get to use the full capabilities of any garment.

Ventile is good and double layer is much better. The reason is that you just don’t wet through in the same way. Because The physical properties of the fabric allows it to get a bit dirty and worn and still work you get a high degree of waterproofing for a long time. The alternative is to use a layered system with a cheaper waxed jacket outer and a modern waterproof underneath. In this way you have the hard wearing fabric on top that can get dirty/smoke filled and wet before you get to the more fragile inner waterproof.

If you rely on just a high performance modern fabric you have several issues. The dwr coating will wear out, very quickly in harsh conditions. Once the fabric wets out then the performance of the shell decreases, but you will not necessarily get wet from the outside. You will get more consdensation from the inside under these conditions. To keep a modern fabric in good condition you need to wash it quite regularly and to proof it as well. In hard or working conditions I do not get more than one or two years out of modern breathable waterproofs. As the fabrics are generally thinner if you live and work outside then a lot of the time you get rips, tears and holes in them. This is particularly important if you work or cook around an open fire (not normal for most people, but essential for me).

To sum up Ventile double layer is good, but do not expect it to be perfect. It will be heavy when wet and take a while to dry. I don’t think you would regret it if you bought one as it will last you a good while.

I use my boning knife and filleting knife a lot. Virtually all my meat and fish come from local sources or I get it myself. You cannot gut fillet and skin (if absolutely necessary) fish without the flex you get from a good filleting knife.

I don’t necessarily think you have to have the best knives, you just need to learn how to sharpen them correctly. I have an old Victorinox for paring duties and it is very good and I am not precious about it. The Japanese Damascus knife, however, only gets used for special jobs and is washed immediately and dried then put away in the knife roll. Not odd about this at all really, but I do get asked to sharpen everybody’s knives when I got to friends house which is a bit weird.

It was pretty dry a couple of days ago, but with the forecast it will slime up over the weekend. Some of the fastest riding we have done is on very cold frosty moonlit nights. It dries out the trails and all of the vegetation and insects have disappeared. Awesome riding.

Sock fighting or Ninja

Kids are the best thing we have ever done in life. Two seems to work, on the whole, better than one as there is always company (even if they don’t always get on).

At the moment, even though you don’t realise it, you do have a mo slack in life than you realise. When you have two then things just have to tighten up and you become more organised, or leap are less about some things, than before.

You will have a lot more opportunities to see and do different things with two. They will fire off each other and introduce you to things you would never have thought of.

Three though…… That just looks like a whole world of pain, by you do get live in childcare if you keep having them;-)

Go for it, would be my vote. The sooner the better.

Me old mon cud tell which un them pictewereque fishing villages of the Black Country yow were frum just accent. Some of the words are very local and are said so fast you would have trouble keeping up.

I love all of the different language that was used in all of the different industries. Most of the industries are gone, but some of the language still gets used.

I’d forgotten that Heroin was a brand name!

Diving Miss Daisy –
Storm beaker – wether in a draining vessel
Catch 2 – the second of many

The lad in the van – Alan Bennett story of north country boy illegally parks in his driveway
American Pi – Teenage maths

The Izard of Oz – Eddie goes to the antipodies.
Happy Fee – a lawyers delight

One with the wind – Be prepared to be blown away (actually that is another film description entirely)

The files – the story of the files that exist?
Finding Emo – Where all those weirdly made up people in dark clothes went.
Point Beak – Large wading bird fights crime in California.

Is there a fundamental issue with the outsourcing and privatisation is that so much of the profit is now funneled offshore and no taxis paid on it. What used to happen was that the money within an economy stayed within that economy at a national level. If you start siphoning a lot of that liquidity out of the market then will start to see holes in the economy.

If somebody could explain where the holes in this argument are then I would be really interested to know.

Gerber do a nice one that is lighter than the ex service ones, as well a being smaller. It is ideal for small clearing/digging, but not much more.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gerber-Gorge-Folding-Shovel-Black/dp/B000WZCSTO

Can back up boy’s comment about the gxp bb boing short lived. Get a better after market one and save yourself the pain.

Love Onzadog’s post. For those that did not get the brevity:

Flow (q) = velocity x area

So if the flow remains the same then you have to decrease the area to make it faster (stick your finger over the end). I don’t have much else useful to add, but an elegant equation is not something you see when browsing on STW 🙂

I rode most of this a couple of month ago and loved it as a big day out. It was painful but I had such a stupid grin on my face that it was really worth it.

Get over yourselves. You have all grown and changed in the intervening years, which cannot be said of the format. my kids watched it and absolutely loved it. It seems to have an energy that they really picked up on, but the music (apart from the two teachers who they thought were amazing) made them leave the room.

If you don’t like Chris Evans you could always not watch it. It looks like a lot of people liked it though and my kids are watching some of the old antics on YouTube. 😉

If you have a fatal accident on your land there will be a lot of people interested in seeing what you have got in the way of health and safety, especially your insurance company and the HSE. You will then have to show your procedures, monitoring and actions to reduce the risks and accidents. If you see 40% of accidents in one place and it not and you made it then the obvious, to a non jump riding off road biker, is to get rid of it.

I don’t like it at all, but we can still ride there. My kids love riding there and will miss the gully, but they like just going out riding anyway. If you owned some land and your insurers told you that they will not cover you unless you get rid of your biggest risk, what would you do, when trying to keep most of the people who visit happy?

As suggested earlier get a couple of boards up and see if you can get some decent inflation under there. You may find that you can cut some cellotex to size, between the beams and seal any gaps up. You can then have the same floor that will last a lot better than a laminate option.

I doubt that it will go ahead unless you can create an offset habitat. Wetland ecosystems are massively complex and are quite rightly heavily protected. Wales may be green, but there are not many wetlands left that have not been screwed up by us so if you are going to build a road though them you have a very expensive project to try. And protect and use them whilst you are building your road.

By way of contrast I have just spent today suveying 52 hectares of habitat with the potential to be turned back in to a wet meadow to offset some areas so it can be done. I can’t tell you how much this will cost though!

We are the only part of the government sector using this at the moment. Guess nobody told us we were guinea pigs as well.

For time codes and project codes put ENV in front of most of them.

BTW no idea what you are talking I come on here to try and escape putting in all of my time sheets. 🙂

We were in a similar situation and ended up stripping the plaster back, baton and cellotex, then dry line and plaster. We no longer have any condensation on what used to be a wall crawling in mildew.

As I sat reading this I can hear a podcast in the background, that my wife is listening to, about mitochondrial dysfunction. She has been diagnosed with chronic fatigue for a couple of years now and like many with this range of symptoms it has been a steep learning curve about some dietary and cell functions. From what I have gathered there are many causes of the fatigue symptoms and, as CG says, knowledge is your friend. You know your body best and you will be able to identify what is working and what is not.

If you can go to your GP and get help, with them being open to suggestions, you may get some help from the NHS. But, and it is a big BUT, because there is no single pathway to cure, or cause, then you may hit big stop signs and lack of interest once the Caeliac/food intolerance/allergy options have been ruled out. You are then left to get more specialised help (possibly private) or contacting other sufferers to tap in to the self help network.

If I have one piece of advice it is to read up on the role of mitochondria on your energy production. Lucy (my wife) describes her life as being like a battery: once the energy is used up you have to stop and recover. The deeper you go in to energy debt the longer it takes to come back to near normal. If you go too far the energy production can be virtually stopped so that you cannot do anything other than just about survive with core body functions. So rest. Properly resting means lying down and dozing/sleeping not expending energy at all. Reading or concentrating on anything means using energy that you have not got once your batteries have run out so you have to stop. You have to allow yourself to do this and it is not a sign of weakness.

If you want a cycling analogy you are like a pro cyclist: anything that is not cycling is wasting energy.

Hope that helps, but always ask if you want info/resources/or just a vent.

Andy