Wow! That is definitely above and beyond! Thanks very much. I never suspected he was dodgy as such, more he wasn’t working anymore. But thanks for checking it out. I’ll give him a ring, I suppose like a lot of folk nowadays my first thought is email to avoid actually having to speak to someone in person 🤐

Cheers, that’s a kind offer but I think it’s just a regular house front rather than a shop or business unit so I’m not sure you could tell. I was hoping someone had used them as it all seems a bit quiet.

That looks great! I’m thinking matte grey too. Maybe fluoro skulls/ flowers depending on the mood I’m in!

I’ve skimmed over this thread so apologies if this is repeated but I spotted earlier the old chestnut ‘teach them how to live properly in school’. My understanding is that school is for formal, academic education not ‘don’t get run over/ brush your teeth’ kind of education which is a parent’s role. Teaching in a tough, socially deprived area I see the effect of neglectful parenting every day. Kids show up to school with an Apple Watch but breakfast is a bag of chocolate buttons and a lucozade. Parents equate commodity with success and love with material wealth. They don’t stop their kids eating crap all day because that would require some kind of engagement with their kids beyond buying them aspirational lifestyle tat.

Teachers, leave them kids alone, I’ve got enough to get through with Gove’s legacy of ‘teach ’em what I learned in school’ to parent them too.

Looks like I’m not in 🙁 I got the ‘invitations have been sent out but if you didn’t get one you’re in a waiting list’ kind of email. Just wondering, for those of you entering for the first time, what kind of info did you put in the ‘relevant experience’ box? I think I might have been a little too brief. I’m racing on the road at the mo but no cyclocross experience and my MTB marathon days are a while in the past.

I’m aiming to race ‘cross this season so it can only help for next year!

Did the OP get anywhere with this one? I’m looking at the same brakes on eBay and there’s a little part of me that thinks this is the bargain of the century while a massive part of me thinks I’ll end up in the canal.

I think a lot of it depends on what you want out of it. I don’t really want promotions (good job really!), I want time. I’m head of a small dept. That gives me a degree of control and a bit of extra cash but I can still keep training properly. Some guys work crazy hours and the job is never really finished. They don’t always get better results though, maybe it’s possible to work smart and not (too) hard?

I don’t think it’s all that bad. I’ve been doing it for 15 years and it’s okay; no better, no worse than other jobs in terms of work life balance. In fact, I’ve always thought it’s a good job for people who like doing other things. It’s currently half term and I haven’t done any work this week, it was a bit manic before we broke up but nothing too dramatic.

I love the holidays but I teach in a particularly deprived area of a big city and the students can be very draining. The plus is I can leave at 3.30 when I want (if I plan it properly) and ride home for 2hrs or I can work till 5 and whizz home the quick way. I don’t really mark at home either, try to get most of it done in school. Planning is done in blocks so tends to be done for a half term or longer.

Bit rambling but sometimes it’s made to sound like unpaid work in a gulag when it’s really not like that if you don’t get all wound up about it.

Erm, you hear of loads of teachers leaving because it’s simply not worth it. I know of two this year from our place, very good graduates, teach first scheme etc. but just couldn’t hack it. The pay is decent if you can do the job and not go quietly gaga.

The holiday one is a bit of a myth; we don’t get 13 weeks, we get 4, the rest is all unpaid leave. I’m not complaining, it really is the best bit of the job and the pay is decent (this may be revised when performance related pay is introduced) and covers not working for 9 weeks a year. The job is tough though, particularly if you work in a ‘rough’ school. I ended up turning Educating Yorkshire off because it was like a bus man’s holiday and if I wanted to watch those kind of kids getting into trouble I’d, er, go to work!

I’d report it and I’m a teacher! We regularly become very frustrated by management sweeping incidents under the rug to avoid earache from the LEA or Ofsted. On the other hand we have an on site pc cos the kids are quite challenging and enjoy physical remonstration in preference to a reasoned conversation.

As an aside, on Wednesday last week a Y11 boy leapt from his seat in the middle of a lesson because his mother had sent him a text requesting his assistance in the fight his father was currently having in the shopping centre opposite our school.

And our first port of call in a disciplinary incident is to phone the parents 🙄

I completely agree with Morpheus and think he is an awesome guy – in fact a shining beacon of consumer righteousness in the face of evil corporate skullduggery

Crack on winged warrior of fiscal fortitude! God’s speed!

This argument makes me chuckle every time (me chuckling). Surely the whole point of market forces and the capitalism so beloved of our private sector is you pay for a product or service based on what the market will bear. I suppose we’ll soon find out what the market is prepared to pay when the product is withdrawn.

On another note, the public sector institution I work in has recently got in cahoots with a private company for IT provision and general maintainance. I have never witnessed a more outrageous waste of public money in my life. Efficient private sector? I’ve never seen a more incompetent, work shy, jobs worth, contract waving bunch of money sucking cynics in all my born days.

I think there are a couple of serious issues here, the first Is the presumption that having attended a school you have the required knowledge and understanding of pedagogy and educational systems to comment on ‘failing schoools’; in a similar vein to my visit to the doctors to have my in growing toenail looked at gives me a sound reckoning of medical science and the NHS.

The second issue is more serious, I work in an LA where we are one of the only Comps left and statistically, based on examination raw data, we are failing. Ofsted rates our teaching and learning as Good with Outstanding features paradoxically. We are surrounded by Academies and deal with their fall out. Academy heads can’t only get rid of the staff they want to but kids too, we see that all the time. Academy is set up, difficult element is turfed out, time and time again. We’re left to pick up the pieces and so our behaviour issues and academic success is constantly challenged. Our teachers are excellent but that will never be perceived externally because the kids we deal with are so difficult, as a product principally of their backgrounds.

I’ve thought of another thing! The PFI model of Academies is a good way to pour money down the drain. I have never witnessed a more disgraceful waste of tax payers money (TM) than when private finance gets involved in education.

Academies and free schools solve the problem of difficult kids for the masses but they don’t solve the issue, they just create sink schools, vilified for poor teaching when in fact the teachers are dealing with the most challenging in our society. I’ve seen teachers from private schools take on our kids and it’s frankly laughable, I haven’t seen such bumbling since my NQT year.

Let comprehensives teach their wards without the inane intervention of the populist ‘comps are crap’ nonsense, no one else is volunteering to teach those kids the free schools and academies don’t want.

Here endeth the lesson….

Check out the Big Agnes Flycreek UL2 or the Easton Kilo, I haven’t found anything that comes close in terms of weight

Looks like the answer is no, even the Dolan goes over a grand now. Oh well, never mind… 👿

Sorry for the highjack…

What’s the consensus on using deep carbon rims for long days out, not racing but looking for a decent time over a course, say the Fred Whitton. I know that’s crazy hilly but there are long sections where an aero advantage might be a good idea. Or would a solo, small group rider be better off with the lightest practical wheelset?

…again, sorry for the highlack (but not that sorry that I didn’t post!)…

Canon 60D – quite astonishing video! 5D/7D if you’re loaded.

Creative Cow is a great resource for videographers and Lynda tutorials are excellent – (you have to pay for these though and they are quite expensive)

Keep going, video editing is hugely rewarding when you achieve a look you want, a bit like hair dos…

Thanks all. I’m not sure I’m going back down the DX route, I just don’t think they’re very robust and £50 a year seems a bit steep when I could buy a light that will last and last (within reason etc).

Some great ideas that I’ll look at but does anyone have any experience of the Ay-Ups and particularly ordering from Australia?

I was having look at an ay-up set, they seem a bit better for the extra ton. But you may be right, another dx although it’s not been that heavily used and the button has broken meaning it’s only on or off and I don’t want to have to order one every 12 months, the economics don’t look good!

Sorry to be a pain cos I’m sure this has been asked a million time but who should I PM to get the diet info?

oh and it’s not for me…its for a mate….honest….

(It actually really is, he’s chunky and I’m not)

Thanks!

I’ve found preemptive Compeeds great on long fell runs/ races. I was a sceptic but a friend persuaded me to give them a go and I’ve got to say I am impressed and blister free!

Favourite is Yeats, then I suppose any of the Modernists; Ezra Pound et al. Blow his mind with a bit of Byron, he’ll thank you later. I suppose most modern British poetry has come out of the ‘make it accessible, make it personal’ mould, nothing wrong with that mind, but Heaney, and our current Poet Laureate, carol Ann Duffy should be worth a look, particularly her World’s Wife series.

Yep, absolutely true, there are some kids who can be turned on to education when it’s offered but there is a significant minority (possibly even a tragic majority) who are so de-socialised that they emulate and reflect their parents model instinctively.

And the house you describe sounds like most, they’re not rare. The one’s with no floor boards or curtains are the ones that really get to you though.

Homophobic bullying is not just rife in schools it’s positively normal. The term ‘gay’ is in constant use, although actually gay students tend to manage okay.

The notion that kids aren’t mean to each other is frankly barking. We’ve just had to transfer a pupil beacuse her mum was caught up in a pornography ring and she (the kid) was being quite severely bullied for it, ‘your ma’s a slag’ is difficult to dispute when the bully’s got video evidence.

I really chuckled at just how tame it all was! These ‘dysfunctional’ kids are pretty normal in an inner city comp. There is a veiled insult in the programme as a whole though, that teaching isn’t a skill in itself but anyone who’s an expert in their area can impart that knowledge effectively.

If I can get all anecdotal, the kid who wrecked a colleague’s Ofsted lesson did so because his mum was being released rom jail that day and his emotions/ social adjustment dial was all the way up to cuckoo. His mum was jailed for stabbing and killing his dad so a bit of a rum one. The Ofsted inspector wasn’t interested though cos he hadn’t evidenced progression in the lesson.

It’s all a bit mad in our school…

HD footage is notoriously fussy, all the different companies use different codecs in camera so editing suites/ players react differently to the footage. Def. second the use of a Class 6 card, I’m surprised it allowed you to record at all on Class 2.

Use the software that came with the camera to import the files then export to a .mov file or a.n.other and edit in whatever suite you fancy.

Have you seen/ read any of Christopher Hitchens opinions on why women aren’t funny? Basically he reckons they don’t need to be because men want to sleep with them regardless so they’ve never developed the ability. However, men being the hideous uncouth beasts they are, need to separate themselves from the herd and tickling a woman’s funny bone might mean reciprocation in your favour.

He also points to the similar expression of a laughing woman and a lady in the throws of joyful union.

The case thing is a bit of a weird one. The case with light uses the socket on the side of the Kindle to power the light itself. The case without light just hooks into the sockets on the side of the Kindle but can cause power failures/ freezes as the connection is made with the case but no light to light!

erm, that doesn’t really make sense does it?

In short, the case without a light can freak the Kindle out and it does weird stuff. Kindle is also awesome! Free books!

Can’t be ollied to read the whole thread so if I’m repeating what’s already been said, sorry!

Hang on for a month or two till Virgin release their Tivo box, that’ll give you better Broadband than Sky and a better TV interface! Kapow!

And I definitely don’t work for Virgin.

I enjoy the ‘true’ meaning of Christmas even though most Christians acknowledge Jesus wasn’t born on 25th December and also acknowledge that 25th Dec is a Pagan festival date and that’s all cool, share and share alike.

I think it’s important humans have a communal celebration, or at least it is for me, and whatever importance you attach to that is up to you.

I think it’s legitimate to mark the birth of Jesus on that day without getting your knickers in a knot over the historical veracity of that date.

But then that’s just me…

I’d imagine the Clwyds are going to get more than an inch, I’m in Liverpool and we’ve got 4 already! I’m aiming to ride the Clywds from Cilcain on Tuesday so hoping they stay fairly clear but I think tomorrow will be quite deep. Still it’s all good fun!

(Obviously, till someone loses an eye…)

I’ve just got my iPhone 4 today! Using my touch screen Nokia now feels like jabbing a dog turd with a particularly blunt stick….

I got the ‘national parks’ pack for my Nokia 5800, which ws only £25 and have been well impressed. Like others I got some custom map tiles to cover the Clwyds and my house and a few other bits, all in all a great product!

I’m ordering my IPhone 4 tomorrow so will have to buy again I think but next to MemoryMap it’s still a bargain!

Sigh…. I’m not trying to convert anyone or make out that god definitely exists but point out that materialism and atheism have some issues that need addressing before we can start slinging round phrases like ‘imaginary friend’ and people with a ‘faith’ are all swivel eyed cretins.

And I’ve definitely not mixed you up with a higher being. 😀

erm..I’m not a Catholic, I suppose a practicing agnostic with theistic leanings, and I think the suggestion that I’m trying to elevate my morals over anyone is a little sensitive.

I think I’m trying to make the point that a hard materialist out look presents its own issues. What do you mean successful practical application? That species preservation is the dominant driving force in morality? If this is the case why not pursue hard line Utilitarianism and preserve our species with some rational weeding out of undesirable elements?

I’m curious as to how we, as a people, come to robust moral choices with out an ultimate reality and how we justify a universal reality.

As to the obfuscation in order to intellectualize a question of faith I counter that you are simply ignoring the ramifications of a materialist outlook to bolster a pretty poor philosophical stance.

DezB – faith in your own mind is no more or less irrational than faith in god then. If belief is necessary than fine and dandy but why is one thing better than another? Can we all have faith in your mind or is it every man for himself? And if my mind suggests something awful is moral can I go and do it with your blessing?

Life… that’s a weird one… what makes that go then?

The point I was making was that physically nothing has changed, there are no more or less atoms, molecules, particles etc than there were before so what’s changed? I agree life has ended but reality has only altered state not disappeared. One inter-reaction between physical entities has become another one, is this good, bad or indifferent?

It seems a strange argument to level at religious institution that they covered up child abuse. Either Catholicism is an evil, power grubbing, uber-club; in which case covering up this sort of thing is par for the course or it is just a load of people in which case I imagine they did what most criminals do and try to hide their crimes. Child abuse is no more prevalent in the Catholic church than in wider society, lots of people are horrid, religious or not.

We could say ‘aren’t people awful the way they try to cover up their atrocious activity’.