I’m pretty irritated that my child’s school is visited by the xxx (read town) “assembly team”. It serves no useful purpose.
There are more Jedi Knights in the UK than there are Roman Catholics. haha..

Ha! Just the same thing was going through my head and I was about to have a rant about my LX. BTW I wouldn’t recommend LX if you intend to ride in UK winter. Stopping power is always good, and they never seem to hang up or stick during dry weather. Give them some sloshing gritty puddles, and it’s scrape scrape almost instantly. I normally have to strip out the pads and clean the calipers about three times per set of pads, and typically once a week during wet winter.

Tonight riding home from work was just the most awful screeching possible from the front, forty minutes of agony and I didn’t want to fix it on the trail in the dark. It made my ears hurt, really. At least no dogs would have gone near me (had there been any daft enough to be out tonight).

I’ve just this moment fixed it. (Yes, it’s an easy 5 minute job, and the LX do have a nice easy system with the split pin which works very well, but still not my fave occupation on a wet muddy bike in a freezing garage).

And pads do cost a lot! 9 pairs a year for me on XC 3500 miles.

42 miles so far. Average speed about 6MPH, much of it sideways.

It really is as widespread as reported. It’s appalling.

Some years ago, after a 18 month gap since a check, my erstwhile NHS dentist refused to even look at my teeth until I’d agreed to first sign up for private treatment to fix any problems. Only after that would he agree to sign me up again to his NHS list, for unnecessary (yet obligatory) six month check-ups routine on the taxpayer.

We don’t want and don’t need six month check-ups, but without them we are thrown out of the system, never to return. Why not spend NHS money on treating patients rather than providing unnecessary obligatory “check ups”, just to keep them in the system? It’s barmy.

Needless to say I told him then where to put his dentistry, and haven’t been since. That was seven years ago. I have made some enquiries since, but there really are no NHS dentists!

Rant over.

They really do mean 7 days, (maybe longer!). Good otherwise.

Yep, Rode in again. 100% concentration job. I allowed myself an hour (Normally takes 25 minutes).

There was still some virgin snow on my route, which was OK, and in other places where LOTS of people had walked it was also OK. High ground in Surrey above 500′ still has 6 inch of snow which has stayed soft.

Trickiest bits were lower down where it was frozen harder and was all disturbed.

Way to work this morning.

Agreed, but if you post a picture, you see nothing except the URL. It’s kind of reassuring to see the correct picture (via a preview) before posting.

So that’s how it is, OK.

Surrey and still snowing.

I’ve got the day off and just got the sledge out!

Dunno, but they are all too small…

How long should a quality tent last?

– In my case until the flysheet disappears off the washing line. Straight up into the sky with a thermal, never to be seen again!

Grrr….

Try to embarass them into it? – Letter to the local paper, FOE, Ecologist magazine etc?
Eco-credentials tend to havs some value these days, even to the most obstinate business.

I’m pleased with my Thorn Enduro frame. It’s 853. No problems at all with the EBB, it does what it should.

They were selling some off not so long ago for less than £200. (It’s now a discontinued frame I think). I picked mine up secondhand.

(My Rohloff has been brilliant. There’s hardly anything to say about it, because it just goes. I’ve done 5000 KM on mine over the last year. – And with the wet mud bath I ride into every morning, for me at least it’s paying dividends:)

6 miles each way. All off road – every day.

“Mercury may be detoxified by a sulphation/methylation process that involves B6, B12, folic acid and zinc”.

Put a giant size child’s balloon inside the water butt, strap lid down with roof rack ties, blow up balloon with 12V car tyre pump.

I’ve never tried this 😆

I do think they have nice snuffly noses.

Main problem in my place is little buggers waking me at night, playing games above the plasterboard ceiling. I can’t get to where they are with a trap because it’s underneath loft floorboards and 300mm of insulation quilt. Not managed to tempt em out yet.

What about these sonic things. – Any good?

It’s easy to do. Bang all nails well in with a big punch, and don’t get too sensitive about splits and gaps.

IMO, Buy a very cheap hard/ortho one. You won’t be disappointed.

I wasted money being taken in by the “pocket springs” hype, and ended up giving it away on freecycle after 6 months after hardly sleeping on the stupid squashy thing.

brilliant rant!

The reason religious people provoke unease amongst normal humans is that we can’t predict what course they will take next.

If they are prepared to believe all that jessus godd allah etc stuff, then we have no evidence at all that that they will respond rationally to other issues.

I also find it all rather sad that children, who so much require us to teach them morals and way of thinking, are being indroctrinated the world over. I work steadily to un-do all the christian stuff imposed on my own child through the state education system. What I find alarming is the depth of belief of some of my little girls friends. I have on a few occasions needed to make made it quite clear to them (if this topic ever comes up during playtime at our house), that they are in fact being deeply deluded. It comes as quite a shock, but I remember my own childhood and find it quite disturbing that until I was old enough to know better (perhaps 11 or 12), I too though there might be something behind it. Wisdom only comes with age, and it’s deeply wrong for children to suffer this stuff.

I found it most uplifting when I burnt my school bible shortly after that age!

I support the protestors every step of the way. Not much useful happens just because of a few peaceful Nimby’s. We need protestors. I think they do a fantastic job, they take risks they feel worthwhile, they get in the press, and eventually the Government begins to take notice.

They do have influence, it’s undeniable. Just look back at the history of environmental protest all over the world, and consider how things might have been without.

If I were less cossetted by my own comfortable lifestyle, family and job, I’d be out there with them.

My estate TDCi will easily loose more than 15 MPG with roof mounted bikes on a fast motorway drive. 55 dropped down to 37 when I went to France in ’07. Exactly the same trip with a towbar mount in ’08 and I got 47.

Clean car, no bikes or roof rack fitted will average 55 on motorway trip, and 68 when driving everywhere very carefully. I have averaged up to 64 when being very gntle with it, even with the bikes on the towbar.

Towbar DIY should only come to £120 ish, pretty easy to do. Thule rack works well for three bikes and should be £60 or so.

Last winter my TDCI (125k miles) was poor to start with long cranking and starting up on only 3 cylinders. I blamed the heater plugs at the time, because I thought it mostly seemed to be turn round OK.

But.. new batttery, and no problems this winter. I really did nothing else to it, and haven’t changed the heaters!

Actually there is nothing “totally illegal” as Neverfastenuff puts it about doing some of your own gas work. It is a good ruse to ensure plenty of work for CORGI fitters, and for many people, is their best bet. If you are being paid for it, you MUST be CORGI registered. For DIY, then according to the gas regulations you need to be “competent”.

You get to decide what that means, – or to prove it should “imcompetent” work put you in a court. Personally I do my own.

For hot water there is a lot of advice and economical kit about from China these days. The Chinese are the worlds biggest solar thetmal installers, and they manufacture the big magority of evacuated tubes. Companies like Navitron in the UK import this stuff and sell mostly to DIY’ers. You can put a couple of square meters of evacuated tubes on your roof for a few hundred quid if you do it yourself.

Saying this I haven’t taken the complete plunge myself yet, but I did install a 300 Litre solar thermal tank when I replaced my normal hot water tank eighteen months ago. That’s part of the job, ready and waiting for the rest, I just need to get it sorted.

As far as financial payback is concerned. Thats’ something of an academic question for many. Why expect a financial payback at all? (but you should get one if you DIY). That “payback” policy is what’s put us in the mess we are in, because fossil fuel is many times too cheap. (Our children will recieve the payback though..). “Payback” from your installation is your own satisfaction knowing you are doing a bit to help..

Not, but veggie for about last 28 years, pushing vegan. Nutritionally I’d have no problem being 100% vegan, and would be just as fit and healthy as I am now. Eggs (or a very small ammount of cheese) is a pretty rare event for me. Biggest problems with being too single minded about it would be travel and socializing.

Leather remains damn useful stuff for some uses, even though it’s produced in some pretty revolting and environmentally damaging ways. There are nearly always alternatives though, and I’d be the first to shun gross or unnecessary application.

I always select “vegan” where given an option at public events, work xmas dinners, airlines etc, because to call oneself “vegie” always dictates the hosts will inflict a revolting goats cheese or cream mushroom concoction.

So it’s a fine idea, if a little impractical at times.