Blimey. Looks like the hillside below the start of the Darkside/Tyn Y Pan trails

Dammit.

Goodies “Wild Thing”…

BTW, I was really trying to find TBT’s truly epic John Travolta impersonation from the classic “Saturday night grease” episode but its not anywhere on the internet, however I do have it on DVD so thats tonights viewing sorted

RIP

Another vote here for the Cobb. We’ve managed to do everything from Curries, standard bbq fare such as Burgers etc (it doesn’t dry meat out when it cooks) to full roast Chicken/Lamb/Beef and roast potatoes on ours.

Had ours for 12 years and its still going strong

Just replaced some Stans tape that had lasted about 8 years.

Tyre wasn’t holding pressure for anything more than a day and when I finally got round to looking at the wheel the tape had stretched over/into the spoke holes until it had become so thin it couldnt hold pressure: by this point the tape was also gettign cut into by the edge of each spoke hole too. Basically its a rubber/synthetyic tape thats put under pressure each time you pump the tyres up or indeed ride the bike so it will wear out eventually: it definately wont last forever…

I’m ignoring the Dawes Kingpin shopper bike that for some reason my Dad felt was completely acceptable for a boy to have as a bike in the 1970’s instead of a Grifter/Chopper/BMX or indeed anything but not a sodding shopper bike with a seriously uncool tartan zip bag on the luggage rack. The Dawes got thoroughly abused/jumped/crashed in many off road antics…

Dad however redeemed himself by buying me my first “proper” bike: an Eddy Merckx* junior racer bike in about 1981-ish, I loved that bike 🙂

*in my naive youth I had no idea who Eddy Merckx was apart from being some foreign bloke with an odd name

Got the really big important project (delayed already due to Corona Virus issues) shown at a web-broadcast/invited audience event in London on Friday afternoon so thankful that we didnt have to wait any longer.

My other job (college lecturer) has moved suddenly to fully online tutorials so spent the day talking to students who due to CoronaVirus are worried/concerned/ambivalent/perparing to embrace the exciting new future where we can sweep out the old thinking and remake society in a new, better and glorious way (delete where applicable) .

One of my students has a (modern) laptop that doesnt have a camera or a microphone so simply cant do online tutorials. Hmmm…

Used Google Meet for the first time today, bit iffy in places but seems to work ok. Skype is its usual hi-res-pixelated-sound off-smooth-blank screen, where are you? oh there you are-jittery-sound-on self…Trying to sue Zoom for a group meeting tomorrow.

hmm…oh well, on the plus side, soon it’ll be Christmas

Ruby

Genuinely intrigued by this (I know one of the designers BTW)

kind of makes me think of this concept car from a couple of years back:

and also a bit of this:

Its South Western Railway (SWR) and frankly Mick Cash and his merry (irony here as I don’t think that man has ever smiled in his life) men have been working up to this one since they took over the franchise starting with their announcement of industrial action regarding the new trains that can be driver-only operated…

…they announced that the industrial action would be starting a good two years before the trains were due to be delivered.

The strike is for all December except for the 12th as that’s the day of the General Election and the RMT don’t want to be blamed for Corbyn losing the election meaning that the railway won’t be renationalised and the glorious proletariat can finally unshackle themselves of the chains of the bourgeois imperialist management and finally move forward as one to a glorious future in our new socialist utopia the cause of people not being able to get out to vote.

Olympus has Allen

dramatic story where Gerrard Butler attempts a daring solo rescue of an ageing comedian from the White House after he is kidnapped and held hostage by Donald Trump

Eat

Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino go on a gastronomic tour of LA

Would be quite nice if someone did a digital version

…which is pretty much missing the whole point.

Cards on the table time, its designed by my old college flatmate (who incidentally got me into mountain biking back in the day). Whole idea is that its just showing you core info in analogue display format, a bit like a car speedo display or one of those cable driven old speedos you could get for bikes in the 1970’s, lots of other info is available for upload and evaluation after your ride but not during so you just get on with riding the bike and not worrying about/being distracted by HRM zones, wattage, meters per minute climbed etc.

The all-powerful cat lobby

Well that’s a new one…

Spooks: the greater good

Scene at the the start where Kit Hartington on the run in Moscow gets picked up by some other agents driving a Tesla model S…

….with normal car engine noise and gear change sounds…arrggghhhhh!

then of course there’s the classic car chase scene in Bullitt between Steve McQueen in a Ford Mustang and two assassins in a Dodge Charger where they repeatedly overtake the same VW Beetle (guess the driver might have been lost) and a bit later on Steve manages to do 37 consecutive gear upshifts (yes, I did count them!)

Tories and Libdems are already in discussion about a “stop the SNP” voting pact in Scotland.

Really would love to know where you guys are getting your info from…is it perchance from the Momentum twitter feed?

Or perhaps the SNP?

ah, yes, just checked, it is the SNP

Oh well, you never know, say something enough times it may just become true…

Whoever said CowboyBeepop…yup, utterly brilliant in the way that really good Japanese Anime only can be. The movie (90min) is very good too. No longer on Netflix as they are rumoured to have commissioned live action series

Knights of Sidonia is really good too. Im sure someone in Hollywood will make a movie of this soon and truly screw the whole thing up like they did with Ghost in the Shell

Altered Carbon was surprisingly good in spite of a few “ooh-er, um, ok I got it, now please put your clothes back on: you’ll catch your death if you keep walking around like that” moments.

Now, a left-field suggestion is the very wierd Netflix sci-fi series Maniac, its a remake of a equally odd Norwegian TV series about two people taking part in an experimental drugs trial that alters their perceptions of reality…really weird, slightly ennui feeling but but starts to come together as the series progresses, I really enjoyed this one.

The OA first series is near death experiences, kidnaping, storytelling, interpretive dance and hello to Jason Isaacs (good btw)

Really thought it was a terrible idea to do a sequel to Blade Runner and didn’t know much about Dennis Villeneuve but saw Sicario and Arrival (which is awesome btw) and started to change my mind.

BR 2049 is really good, pays homage to the original (Director’s Cut) but also is its own film (without adding spoilers, Villeneuve and Ridley Scott have differing ideas about Deckard) and asks more questions about replicants and their place in the society (principally about the idea of slavery) and takes the technology ideas off in some clever directions while still being true to the original film’s vision of the future.

Also if you like Syd Mead designs then Las Vegas will have you cheering…

well, the only really horrible bit would be across Harting Down which offers up a few rather “interesting” chalk descents which can be very slippery if the ground is wet/slimy , the run into the Arun Valley could be the similar but only if you go really fast down it (in which case if anything goes wrong, it serves you right TBH) as well as a few field crossings that would potentially be of the claggy clay variety.

Best advice to do the SDWIAD in winter is to go slow and steady, just like in the summer…

My winter combo round here is a High Roller on the front and a narrow-ish mud tyre like a Bonty MudX 2.1 on the back

Just to add to Dissonance’s TL;DR overview (I’m about 25% of the way through his blog)

I’m just wondering when I read this , if this is all such a good idea (and by the way, there is a lot that he makes passing comment on that are good management process in certain situations) , why on earth hasn’t he actually done any of this (ie applied, tested and demonstrated these processes and methodologies) himself?

Tends to suggest that he’s saying, “hey, I read a book!” and thinking that’s good enough. Passing the theory test then not bothering to sit the practical

He makes comments also about politicians hiding behind bombast…

hmmm…

anyway, more to trawl through (its like reading one of my students research dissertations while looking for their own personal reasoning and conclusions)

Well done mate, still need to go back and complete the SDWIAD after bailing at 85 miles (I know, I know…) a couple of years back.

For anyone wondering about the climb up Amberley mount, its an absolute slut of climb (though I always think the short gravel climb from High Tittern lane from Amberley up to the gate just before it is worse) not a simple steep climb its covered in divots and ruts too…the reverse Strava section down the hill is called “Like space hoppers” 🙂

Decent vacuum cleaner with HEPA filter*

*Hoover the house, not the dog…

West Wittering beach/East head is 10mins away (traffic depending)

Er…well, that and not being too fussed about driving at 140mph on the A27 or A259…probably easier to do on the A27 as there are a couple fewer roundabouts or pedestrian crossings…

Ok, Littlehampton is a very traditional British seaside town. The town itself is ok, a bit tatty in places and always feels a bit like its in a slightly sleepy decline. However, the seafront is actually ok: long promenade, touristy funfair/amusement arcade, no pier but there is a jetty thing, there’s is modern riverside walk as well which is actually quite nice and a new swimming pool too. The beach has a RNLI patrol in summer too. The only dodgy bit is Wick which is locally viewed as a being bit rough but to be honest its just sort of rough in a kind of half-asleep way: Its the south coast, not the Gaza Strip FFS.

Yes, Arundel is nicer but its only about 15mins away and rentals there are liable to be a lot more expensive. Rustington (next town along) is a bit more upmarket (its a town, they refer to it as “a village”, they have a Waitrose…) South Downs (and some corking good trails) are about a 20-25mins cycle ride away…

I guess it really depends what you want to do.

Primary issue is that the existing mainline is pretty much at full capacity after a very expensive and disruptive upgrade/modernisation about 10-15 years back that didn’t produce the capacity or speed improvement it was supposed to. Not building HS2 simply means that you’re back to square one with no plan to solve the capacity and resilience issues on the route between Manchester, Birmingham and London which has a major knock on effect for rest of the network. Only real alternative is quad or six tracks all the way from London to Manchester and that ends up basically the same as HS2 but a lot slower and probably more expensive.

TBH with regards HS2, a white elephant it aint. In fact I can’t think of any large scale UK infrastructure project done in living memory that is one (happy to be corrected here but really cant think of one: If you want to see a proper infrastructure b***s up have a look at Berlin Brandenburg Airport or Ciudad Real Central Airport in Spain…)

The only thing the review is liable to propose is a slightly lower line speed (around 190mph as opposed to 230mph). The huge cost of having to tunnel/cut and cover or place in deep cuttings a lot of the route will remain and is due to having to placate a lot of people who don’t want the railway near or visible to them as well as the very significant eco mitigation work required for the project both of which are arguably necessary.

The Expanse series by James SA Corey, starting with Leviathan Wakes is very very good indeed, full on space opera/political saga/interplanetary war etc.

Another series to get into is “Three Body Problem” by Liu Cixin: v. good Chinese SciFi all about what to do if you know there is going to be an alien invasion in 400 years time…

SevenEves by Neal Stephenson is full on end of the world stuff. Actually pretty much all of Neal Stephensons work is awesome, try the “baroque cycle” books as well.

The latest books from William Gibson are worth reading, quite a step on from his original cyber-punk works, try “The Peripheral” which is near future or ” Pattern Recognition” set a few years after 9/11

Follow this link for the view from Cycling UK who met with the council yesterday: Cycle clubs can resume cafe stops but put cafe at risk if they do…

Gravel bikes are a stupid idea: think oversized fully rigid mountain bike on comedy big wheels with narrow tyres and Drop bars so pretty much wrong on every level with the exception of disc brakes…

My advice therefore is to get one for the following simple reasons:
Bikes are good (except perhaps single-speeds and even then they have their moments)
All those “boring” trails/lanes etc that you don’t bother riding on your mountain bike are suddenly a lot more interesting.
You start getting Strava PB’s going up hills’
The fact that riding down rough tracks on the drops and getting airborne while laughing like a maniac is life affirming.

Most likely will be Oneder Dogging (edit, now called CLiffshot lap which has far less innuendo bingo opportunities) as I have zero competitive instinct but need a new mug..

Will also be bringing sunglasses as I have seen Ming’s Fox racing kit before and it caused a major league migraine

Ultimately the Lib Dems had the whip hand over the Conservatives due to being able to make up the numbers to form a majority government.

Wrong! This was actually done via the coalition agreement between the conservatives and LibDems that meant that there was a 5 year stable government, it prevented what happening now with the DUP’s confidence and supply agreement that is propping up the current government where they actually can hold the government to ransom.

The difference is that the DUP is a NI party, its quite a different situation (how many Conservative/Labour/LibDems etc are there in NI? er…none: different parties there) and they can do deals that help them domestically. The downside of doing a confidence and supply deal in England, or indeed Wales and possibly Scotland is that you won’t necessarily be able to get anything tangible for your voters. Being in government (ie in power) does mean that you can make a difference and try and achieve at least some of your agenda.

Sootyandjim et all, if you actually knew the details of the both the coalition negotiations in 2010 as well as how the LibDem party works (this agreement had to pass the triple lock that controls such negotiations for a hung parliament, like what Labour and Tories don’t have…howeverif things continue the way they are they might just need to draft one..). The deal that was offered was significantly better that that from the Labour Party who really did want the Lib Dems to be their lap dog and help prop up both the losing party and Gordon Brown (That was a very short negotiation meeting BTW).

There was a global and national financial crisis, the country needed a stable government and for better or worse, the country got just that. If you want to see what happens when you dont have a stable government (or indeed a main opposition party) just looks back over the last 2 or 3 years.

Frankly all this “oooooh the coalition,. it was sooooo bad, it was going so well before they came along and everyone who was involved is evil and should be treated accordingly except for the junior partner who should be hung drawn and quartered then burned as they should have know better and if only they had been good little socialists who are all fluffy and cuddly and do nice things and are never, ever bad” talk is just tiresome.

Get over it.

Algebra.

Pheasants.

People who stand still on Travelators (thereby failing to experience the “1000 leagues boots” effect)

Ant and Dec

Will it be good? Who cares, for better or worse I’m up for this movie.

Are they going to try and get Iceman back into a cockpit as well? As it’s Val Kilmer it could be a tight fit…

…and, of course, I also claim my £5 🙂

Looks like the nosecone from a Handley Page Halifax bomber…

Hmm…strangely enough that “new” logo looks less stag and more like they are now making two V signs…a tad schoolyard methinks.

More money well spent on their graphics designer and his “creative process”?

Jamie and the Magic Torch.

Only more edgy, knowing and significantly darker with “adult” themes and a clear story arc, a bit like the reboot of Battlestar Galactica

I wonder if they also do an anti radiation intercom system that’s two old tin cans connected by a piece of string?

Re-watched Stranger Things 2 this week in preparation. Watched first episode of the new series last night so I’m now suffering from loads of retro deja-vu due to the music 🙂

And “New” Coke, anyone notice/remember that?

Apparently they also fit seatbelts to cars now. This kind of typical nanny state type lunacy prevents you from being thrown clear of the car in a crash…

Frankly I’d go for the Cycling UK insurance as their legal cover is done via solicitors who specialise in cycling cases:

https://www.cyclinguk.org/incidentline

(Note to the mods, other solicitors are available)

BC or Cycling UK membership gives you extensive third party liability cover. Cycling UK also gives you legal advice too (I think BC does as well but need to confirm).

Another thing is to check your Home and Contents insurance policy as this may (should/most probably does) also give some degree of personal liability covers which covers you for riding a bicycle.

more info here: https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/latest-news/do-cyclists-have-to-have-insurance-357751