I’ve met several, including a couple of buying / selling / swapping bike tranfers. All have been top chaps, apart from the women.

I think that Stoner and BigDummy and that nice carpenter bloke from S London were the first, more than 10 years ago. Flashy was supposed to turn up, but didn’t.

Most recently I’ve bought a bike from Dr Lex. Thanks, Dr Lex, much appreciated.

Spanish,  as I like holidaying there, and have dreams of headng to S.America. It’s also close enough to other Romance languages to enable a fluent speaker to get by in POrtuguese, Italian & Occitan.

Polish – to converse with Polish friends

Mandarin – in 10 years time it will be the key language of tourism in Asia, if it’s not already.

It’s there to adjust the chain length for running SS or hub gears, see above. It’s used to prevent a slack chain from falling off too easily.

@ElShalimo, MartinHutch:

Amber’s father, Tony Rudd, was a rich stockbroker who owned Chalcot House near Westbury, Wiltshire, as his country pile. When he was disgraced for dodgy dealings (there were allegedly plenty he wasn’t nicked for) he sold the property.  I think that was in the early 90s.

Mrs M’s family lives very nearby, but not in a mansion. When the place was empty Mrs M & I had a nosey around the outside & outbuildings.  In one of the stables, there was a human skull on a shelf, brown from age but otherwise in good condition. I’ve no idea what happened to it – Mrs M wouldn’t let me nick it. She also remembers them going to the local church, taking the front pews as a right  of wealth, wiith Amber there in pigtails.

Like father, like daughter.

I’d like to ask her about the human skull I found in the stable block of her old home, soon after her family moved out.

I dunno.

We’re booking a place which sleeps 6 for a week over the August Bank holiday – it costs somewhere north of £500 which I think isn’t too bad.

North York Moors, though.

They have availability for a week in May, too.

Have a look for Sykes Cottages if that would interest you.

@flyingmonkey: the wreckage is really just pieces of aluminium & odd other parts scattered over a smallish area. It was best seen after the heather was burned. From what I remember it was a training flight that went wrong.

My parents used to own the old Rudland Chapel just 100m or so south of the cattle grid at the end of Rudland Rigg, so I spent loads of time around there before they sold it.  Now it’s a holiday home we’re going to rent it this August for a week !

Fun fact: the building was just a shell when they bought it – it cost about 4 months wages for a teacher in the 60s – say about £10k today :)

From what I remember (20 years?) the wreckage is about half-way between Harland & Keysbeck, as the crow flies (on the map), or where the path from White House turns to run parallel the the dale. I don’t know if there’s anyhting left of White House, now, since most of the stone was taken.

That little area holds my heart.

Very nice.

Where is that? It reminded me of the path above Farndale near where the air crash wreckage can be found.

I saw this in the metal & agree it’s lovely. Mind, so is the frame-maker. Gorgeous.

There are serious  penalties on landlords for not placng the deposit in a verified scheme.

You should have had emails etc from the DPS when you moved in, and they should have your number too.  Check before you leave (now) which scheme applies. If the landlord haasn’t put your money in, you can more-or-less tell them to do one.

If he had coke & hookers last year, then it’s time to grow up: MDMA and ladyboys.

Yes, in short.

If the front end is too high, your weight will be shifted back and pedalling will become more effort & you won’t be able to control the front so easily over rocks etc

The Solway is a nasty one.

When I was 11 my family visited relatives stationed at a forces base there (can’t remember the name) .

My uncle decided to take my father and I over the sands for a walk… we ended up wading back to shore, with the water up to my waist and still rising fast. What made it riskier was the areas of quicksands, undetectable once under water.

Never again.

Definitely worth going, from my point of view. Except that I wouldn’t want to spend the type of money that some of the beautiful bikes go for.

There were more gravel-type bikes there than previous years, many with fat road tyres and porteur style front racks – very practical, I reckon.

cashwise, a 2nd hand GUmtree Camping Gaz stove will do you fine.

Remember,, NO BARBECUES IN THE VAN. or you might die

Mos – what size is your Pompetamine ?

Friday afternoon.

Probably yes.

I’ve put an XT BB / chainset into a Genesis CdF to replace the Sora one supplied.

You’ll go to hell for that.

… you have your first try at bouldering in your 60s.

My arms and shoulders feel as if they’ve been half ripped off.

Look at lots before you buy. Gumtree seems to have plenty locally.

The facilities you want will fit in a big Transit / Boxer / Ducato etc sized van, not need to go for a coachbuilt.

Hillman ??? Scimitar ?

Mrs M is looking at an electric Orbea Katu. It looks capable, and with 20″ wheels is easier to store than longer bikes

If you don’t really need the folding aspect of a 20″, have a look at the Orbea Katu range

* If anyone has much experience of using one of these – do tell*

A: For France, you should be fine.

B. If you apply for a renewal online today or tomorrow, there’s a good chance you’ll get a new one before you go.

Dubrovnik in the summer is jam packed. It’s lovely, though. The city is overshadowed by the cruise ships.

Split, also good. Islands, great.

Walking & cycling fine.  The Pitvicka gorges are amazing , also filled with east asians shuffing around.

I’d say: go.

As Footflaps said, the online process (which I went through last November) is smooth and takes about a week. I normally wear glasses, but took them off for the photo.

I’m very understanding at work, except when faced with people who act like prima donnas.

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At the airport, take your glasses off once you’re in the booth.

Dead easy, if you’re not being a tool.

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Thanks, real helpful. What’s the booth?

The stall for electronic passport control.

Haven’t you travelled for several years?

You can take a suitable photo with your phone, for an on-line application for a replacement passport. Just read the instructions which tell you not to wear glasses.

At the airport, take your glasses off once you’re in the booth.

Dead easy, if you’re not being a tool.

“I cant see that the chemicals themselves could be ‘fingerprinted’ back to the source”

But IF Porton has managed to obtain samples of the susbstance, they ought to be able to detect the contaminants that indicate how it was made, which chemical synthetic route.

The original USSR labs were in Usbekistan or Kazakhstan, I think, & were decommissioned by the US after the Soviet break-up. They were reported to have identified the methods used to make the V-agents. I guess that’s where Porton obtained their samples for comparison purposes, if they have any.

Alternatively, Porton might just have IDd the agent using normal analytical methods, and not have any of its own.

Mrs M used to be able to divine water pipes on the farm and when she worked for a water company but seems to have lost the ability.

There are enough people claiming this ability for me to believe it, in spite of/because of my scientific background.

I compare dowsing (receiving a signal or identifiying a presence, then acting on it), to a radio. It plays a sound in response to a signal generated elsewhere. If you alter the radio  settings/ dowser by pressurising them by observation , its ilke generating a field of static or changing the tuning.  The radio won’t  work.

This seems very similar to the assassination of the North Korean man in KL last year, using a spray of nerve agent.

It’ll be interesting to see if the CCTV shows some contact with anyone who subsequently flew out of Southampton airport two hours later.

One a different note, last summer I spent a happy half-hour exactly there, on the footpath outside Sainsbury’s in Salisbury, watching water voles swimming around in the Avon.

Forks, Spoons, Knives. Teaspoons & oddments at the front, Serving spoons fart left, kitchen knives far right.

Obvious, innit?

That looks like a very nice route, especially with a station in Frome & the link to Bath via the Two Tunnels

… get your first State Pension payment into your bank.

They think I’m old, I think I’m middle-aged.

There are plenty of Sheffield stands opposite Browns and outside the student caff on Queens Rd.  The Museum has a couple of locking points on its forecourt, and the fencing outdie the Wills building can be used. I’d recommend the last option.

It looks like it was dipped in caustic – which certainly softens paint but eats aluminium too.
Drop some aluminium foil in washing soda & see what happens.

Bin the frame

Walk along the canal towards Bradford for some quietish times.
Use the trains – visit Frome, or consider a day in Bristol – it’s only 15 minutes away from Bath (But don’t make the journey by car)

35 ….. days until I collect my pension.