I’ve got Feelmax shoes. Lovely. Wear them for the office it’s like nothing, – perhaps socks. It definitely does change one’s gait. I do wear them outside for summer walks, but I try to avoid tarmac for fear of taking out the soles.

I fitted my own. Witter I think. Only difficulty was needing to remove a lot of the the shock absorbing padding/foam from inside the bumper, to make way for the steel.
The padding was much of the support for the bumper, so the bumper ended up a bit flimsy and hollow and didn’t sit quite as nicely.

Horse chestnut….a chainsaw…..
Yes I did use my chainsaw on half the Horse chestnut, but the wood grenade was faster in the end. Chainsawing along the grain is horrible, and the fibres clogged the oil feed several times.

I split all mine, most of it with a Roughneck Splitting Mawl (Screwfix). Easy. Some cross-grained woods are impossible though.

Horse Chesnut is the worst ever, especially near the base. That’s where the Wood Grenade and a sledge hammer are brilliant. Not quick but nothing much else will easily separate that stuff.

I use white spirit – every morning in the winter. I have used one of those chain cleaner things (Park Tools) when I ran D’ers but it was pretty useless overall, and it broke. Also it still didn’t wash the grit out from inside the links anyway.

I keep white spirit in an old squirty Rock & Roll bottle. – That doesn’t get all the grit out either, but a good slather and a spin loosens the worst. A wipe down allows some new application, and the chain crunches less than it did.

My time is to precious to make chains perfect when tomorrow’s freezing morning and it’s time to do the same again.

The MOD say “If the current level of infringements, damage and disruption continues it is likely additional resources will be found to manage access in a more appropriate fashion”.

I hope thay do only mean the constructions and digging (not for me that stuff).

But they also benefit from us lot, and that didn’t get a mention. On balance IMO their own activities are greatly more disrupting and damaging than MB’ers. I’ve reported a number of fires to them over the years. (And I have clearly observed their own soldiers causing fires with their spent fag ends). What’s a small cut-through a wood compared to 10M+ wide swathes of compressed sand and mud the big trucks leave behind? An aerial photo of the Aldershot area, and it looks like there has been a war on, – thankfully from our ground level mostly what we see are the nice trees.

A number of my routes are often freshly cut up by army trucks unnecessarily driving around puddles, and just widening their already huge cuttings into the woods.

Soliers I meet are friendly. I always say hello, often they do, and sometimes they don’t: It’s normally the trainees who don’t seem to know if they are allowed to speak!

GPS wouldn’t work because you wouldn’t be able to have geo-stationary satellites”.

GPS satellites aren’t geo-stationary.

There is a permanent “Ice” sign not far from me. Crying wolf really. Completely daft.

I roll my own with one of these. – Quality control!

I used to get away with it for a short time anyway when I had d’ers..

Nowadays I run KMC on hub gear and build complete chains from offcuts. – Every 5 chains I get one free! 😆

Never broken one yet and they end up totally shagged with the grit round here.

Why keep it at all? One good shearing is just the right amount for a nice pesto. Problem gone.

Take a look at ski packs.
I shelled out on a Lowe Alpine Fall Line. It’s a ski pack really, but is brilliant for everything. It’s very comfy and very stable. The load straps mean it pinches up tight when part full, or they can hold clothing if you happen to go out over dressed.
I use it also for walking days out. Easy to remove back stiffener which allows it to bend (which is necessary) for cycling.

I did it once to Val D’Isère. Not too much fun. Heavy rain turned to monster wet snow. Then the Gendarmes ordered us all to put the snow chains on at the start of the climb. – I recall grovelling under a filthy car in pitch dark with heavy sleet in the middle of the night.

The skiing was great, but by the end of the week we couldn’t see the car. Just a pile of snow.(And a flat battery).

Washing up: Greasy hotel slop, horrible.

Chamomile picking: Smelt a little nicer.

Making model aeroplane kits: Hundreds of them, foam, balsa wood, obechi, glue, dust and machine tools.. Mostly enjoyable but hard graft.

They are great, apart form the odd fat grumpy fisherman round our way who deliberately moves into the track to block it, whilst shouting about speed limits and slowing down..

IS there a speed limit for a towpath? – I’m probably better off not knowing though..

I’ve once had a cable tie wear a hole in an alloy frame – jiggling about with grit underneath! Take care where you put them and make sure they always stay tight!

I don’t know, – there are no NHS dentists!

I used to have one. They struck me off for not going to their stupid 6 month check-up, then said they would only put me back on the list if I first had their next checkup and subsequent work all done privately first!

Blackmailers.

Shimano, regular pad removal and cleaning/lubing the pots or they stick slightly, grazing the disk, and then it rings like a scalded cat. Drives me nuts.
It depends on the sort of dirt. It’s gritty here and winter wet is bad for it. Happens much less during the summer or dry weather.

OK thanks for that anyway. I’ll take a good look when I get it out

Lots of daylight in the daytime. Proper outdoor stuff, no glasses/windows or perspex in between. & Don’t use a computer in the evening.

Nokia N8 Smartphones have HDMI output so can connect to pretty much any TV. Nokia C7 has composite video output, so will connect to a monitor which has composite vid input (many do have). I have seen a C7 playing a film and it was very good. I guess HDMI would be excellent. I guess BT keyboards would work.
Mice I suspect not though, you’ll need to look into that.

I thought I wouldn’t be a fan, but our daughter (then 7) twisted our arm. Now we have one – single male. We love him. He never bites, snuffly nose incredibly friendly little kind of chap. Comes out to see us and doesn’t hide away in a corner. Also comes on holiday with us in the car. Costs nothing to run (eats the kind of stuff we do).

DON’T buy one of those stupid plastic “tube” cages. We had a “Habitrail” for 3 months before it all fell to bits and we binned it. It was awful to clean,- very little ventilation and the plastic was brittle.

He’s become very nocturnal though now it’s winter and our house has been extremely cold. He’s been getting up 11PM and we see him usually for 10 minutes at breakfast if we are early.

First proper shorts morning today for the ride in. 12C. Lycra and legs out. Lovely. Trifle muddy though.

Can you voluntarily sink, and lie without moving on the bottom of a swimming pool by just exhaling? My unscientific notion always maintained that was a reliable guide to body fat ratio, but it’s untested on many (except I know I can)..

If they were entirely privately funded it’d be up to them, but it’s a bit rich isn’t it?
We were in the fortunate position of being able to disregard the Churchy/Christian schools, although the leanings of the one we do (which sadly isn’t as good) still irritates me.
At least our little girl has a healthy attitude to all the foolery. -Kids won’t be indoctrinated all that easily!

“they’ve already used hydrogen to power bendy buses
“ Just tell us all where they get their Hydrogen then! 😯

“The UK has sufficient farmland to power our reserves just fine.
” Where did you get that then Mikertroid? – It’s definitely a long way from my understanding. We need our farmalnd to feed 70M people, not cars.

Lots of bad stuff will happen, more oil wars and starving people. Sad but probably true.
If governments round the world pull their collective right-wing fingers out and do more about clean alternatives and energy saving right now, much could be averted.

I suspect our place will drop it now. I got them to start it up 4 years ago and it ran usefully for 3 years with many people using it. Pretty much a waste of time for all concerned nowadays.

Without inverting themselves…
I won’t buy gloves which have sewn-in liners for that reason.

I have a huge capacity for sleep in the winter. Gettting up on dark mornings is definitely unnatural. The Northern hemisphere should hibernate IMO.

But it’s feeling springy at last. Yesterday was definitely lighter! I got halfway home without lights, at least till I couldn’t see the trail at all.

It’s as much a question of how good your GPS is, as much as the design of the windscreen. Probably no heated windscreen will have zero impact.

At best it’ll reduce performance (under trees etc). At worst it’ll stop it working. I have a couple of Garmin’s, one works the other doesn’t. – That’s in a Ford BTW.

It’s quite extraordinary. My daughter’s school has a similar policy saying they first need cycling proficiency – but not offering this till they are ten. Needless to say only one pupil seems to cycle! It also has the cheek to fly an “eco flag” for some dubious box-ticking green deeds – smoothing the route for the Chelsea Tractors.

We do use the Tandem as it turns out for now, so have not needed to meet the problem head on. But will need to review it if/when she wants to ride on her own.

I’d just go for it regardless in your position.

The main problem is car makers aiming too high, with heavy cars and trying to make vehiclles which will still do 0..60 in ten seconds and go 90MPH.

I’d be happy taking 30 seconds to accelerate, and 50..60 flat out. You could do that with 1/10th the power built into many electric cars today. That allows really big range between charges.

There is nothing to stop it happening now.

Safety specs. Go to a building trade show and get about 3 pairs for £10.

Lovely if you have the time to spend. I grew up riding about in the back of a DS Estate.

I had the “baby” GS for 5 years in the late 80’s. I guess I hankered after the old Family DS, and it had some of the flavour. Lovely to drive. Scrapped it when I finally couldn’t be bothered with the rotten hydraulic pipes (yet..again). Still pains me to remember the scrapyard grabber hoiking it up by the roof.

And is it worse than ingesting the non-stick coating in the first place?

Personally I won’t use non-stick pans and I wouldn’t use aluminium ones. It’s your lifelong exposure though. – You may of course choose to ignore “unproven risks”.

Whatever your conclusion, it’s probably a bad idea to make pickle in it

I’d say it mostly comes from the inside. You shouldn’t be needing to be slapping on any skin moisturizers if your body is doing the job properly.
Look hard at eating really good quality fats and oils. Cold pressed, and don’t ever heat them. (If you must fry anything, then use butter or olive oil which withstand high temperatures better). Eliminate trans-fats and and products cooked in heated oil or using heated fats (eg pastry). Chuck out your margarine and supermarket cooking oils. Use butter and cold pressed oils instead. -They cost more but what price is your health?

If you don’t already, then take a good dollop of flax oil every day. You will feel the difference within only a few days.
Read up on it for example here:http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fats-That-Heal-Kill-Cholesterol/dp/B003BY3VPI

“She’s much more chilled when held but is too little to understand that we can’t do this all the time.”

.. Well humans have evolved for millions of years and little’uns slept with their Mummy. – So can you blame her?

Get her into your bed.

Downside is that it could last for 7 years.. (Don’t ask me how I know)..but that’s not really so bad if you are cool about it.

Upside is kids get much more interaction, I’m sure the extra hour of communication every day helps development. Abandoning them alone is not natural, it’s just the way most of our society here happens to view normality.

I think they mostly come from wild trees. Probably all been cut down by now 🙁