I have to say, IMHO Tudor take the piss with the number of different versions of the same watch they do (what are we up to now, 58 versions of the Black Bay?! ;)) , and with the fawning dribbling coverage they get from the watch press.

But the Pelagos is an absolute killer watch, and in the MN FXD, probably the best version of their best watch

Leftovers that contain fish.

Oh, also if you put a mince pie in the microwave for 2 minutes the results are impressive. Mince pie inedible, but also glowing red hot in the centre; interior liner of microwave peeling off.

Yeah, was looking it over yesterday and it’s looking a bit hooked. Plus it probably has ramps etc optimised for shifting, which I guess is the opposite of what one wants for 1x…

I’d recommend a 34 chain ring as well on a 26er.

Yeah? You’re thinking more about top end gears rather than bottom end, I guess?

With 32x 11-46, I reckon I’m losing the bottom 3 ratios from my current 3×9, which is fine as I never use them. And obviously the entire top 9 ratios, of which maybe 5-6 are not covered by the 32T chainring?

Fortunately I’m still on 26″ wheels!

I’m using an older hub, so the SRAM 10T sprocket may not fit(?), but thanks for the headsup on the Sunrace. Is it a decent cassette? (I’d be looking at Shimano SLX, for comparison)

Could be wrong, but I believe the lower 7 gears use an additional gear that adds a layer of drag compared to 8 to 14.

I had a Rohloff for 3-4 years, and in maintenance terms it was how biking should be. It just works, protects the grindy bits from the mud and so on. But like ton and trail_rat I ended up switching back to 3×9, it just feels easier to ride.

Thanks all! If nothing else, the bike press would have me believe I’m the only person left riding a 26″ wheeled bike…

A bit of basic research shows 1×11 is totally practical, and bikediscount.de have shifter/ mech/ cassette/ chain for £150 (XT/SLX). For the trails I’m riding that should be plenty. It also frees up cable guides for the dropper post cabling.

And I had my eye on the sports direct brandx dropper, wasn’t sure of durability, so great to hear it’s a good ‘un.

Appreciate the help!

The way forward is to help her to welcome the body she has, to love who she really is, and not try to make her feel she is in the ‘wrong body’. Right now, I don’t know how to do that, and more importantly neither do her parents. Which is why they are having counselling and therapy.

Depressing that there’s a paucity of actual empathy and understanding coming from certain individuals on here. And unsurprising that some people seem intent on bending all of us to their will. What happened to mutual respect?

More of this please! It’s weird that as ideas of gender become more transient the labelling paradoxically becomes more rigid. ‘Boy who likes wearing girls’ clothes’ => ‘girl in the wrong body!’, as opposed to “fair enough, boys can wear whatever they want”. And ‘tomboy’ is taken to be something “more significant” rather than just “cool, you can be a tomboy”

Garden looks a bit… blank. OP do you live in Limbo?! ;)

Great looking bike though, decent value for the money too!

Yup, quite a lot of this stuff around York, especially on the Foss. Some greeny types came in to pull some of it up, but quickly gave up, perhaps after seeing how much of it there is

We’re working through S2 of Mayor of Kingstown. Very good, in a quite stressful way; and I sadly have an idea of where the story will go for S3

People are quick to blame the country’s ills on (well, anything other than accepting responsibility themselves, but) social media and that surely plays a part in enabling the dissemination of misinformation, but really this is primarily a mainstream media issue IMHO.  For years we’ve been conflating regular immigration, refugees and asylum seekers as all being the same thing.

…all as a way of basically putting an acceptable, discussed in legitimate respectable media, face on racism. “don’t like them, they look funny”.

Jeez, parking ticket wardening pays well! ;)

I noticed the film Wicked Little Letters is on Netflix now. Can’t really recommend it as I haven’t watched it yet, but it seemed to get good reviews when it was out in the cinema and was on my ‘to watch’ list.

Kermode liked it, but got some letters in saying listeners hadn’t, so could go either way. But I’ve added it to my to watch list.

We started watching Dinosaur on BBC. 30 minute comedy, set in Glasgow; not too much story to it, but funny enough for us

I see there were ‘disturbances’ in Manchester last night. It was protests outside a hotel housing asylum seekers.
That’s truly ****ed up. People are fleeing war zones so… what, let’s make them feel at home?

Same in Ireland. Anywhere that gets labelled as potentially being used to house asylum seekers, the white yobs turn up and set fire to it.

Because asylum seekers are stealing all their jobs, y’see.

Social media. These people have always existed, but they had no real idea of realising how many people shared their views. Previously it was just their mates down the pub. Felt pretty isolated. Now they can see solidarity on social media and feel emboldened by it, fed lies by the right wing poster boys like Farage and Robinson.

Bollox.

How did we get here? Farage, mainly, and Cameron.

The far right has existed in the UK for donkey’s years. During the war it was Mosley and his crew gathering crowds. Once the Windrush generation started landing it boiled down to simple racism – those people don’t look like us, so let’s blame them for everything that’s wrong in our lives. And there were riots, people charging police, burning down buildings both in support of and fighting racism.

20 years ago Nick Griffin was still seen on TV, as the not-quite-acceptable-but-let’s-show-him-anyway face of “alternative views”. Then we stopped seeing him and his ilk for a while.

Then Farage started getting airtime, David Cameron decided the best way to avoid losing voters to Farage’s (not actually electable) crew was to legitimise his views on immigration, racism and so on, and the rest is history. Overlay that on top of an economy and country that has been absolutely driven to the wall by the Tories over the last 14 years and we have a lot of people feeling much worse off than they were, with fewer opportunities than they had, seeing others getting richer and richer; being told that it’s down to people “coming over here stealing what’s yours”.

To be clear, nobody has stolen NHS beds – the government just didn’t invest in them. Nobody’s stolen your job (unless you clean toilets for cash with no job protection), companies have just taken the money and given it to shareholders. And although events like this are absolutely shocking and appalling and horrendous to see, as we saw in Southport, it’s less about immigrants than lunatics of any background/ colour/ beliefs.

But the people whose opportunities and feelings of agency have been taken away from them have been told for the last decade that it’s OK – nay, right – to blame it all on immigrants, and that the best way to show their disapproval is take to the streets. Social media is a channel; but it’s the Daily Hatemail, the Express, GB News, Farage, Yaxley-Lennon, Suella Braverman that have the recognition and voices to make this acceptable.

Plutoline hot wax newby

This is amazing! It’s like “we set our ChatGPT model to generate as much engagement as possible on STW” :D

But seriously, definitely worth it. Deep fat fryer apparently is undoubtedly the good way to do it, but if you can dodge the OH, it’s perfectly easy to do it on the kitchen stove and dunk your chains in the tin itself.

anyone got any horror or sci if recommendations? For reference one of the best horror I’ve seen on the last 12 months was I saw the devil.

or any good recommendations tbh. I’ve read most of the thread and would have watched dead man’s shoes, but that’s now not available on film 4.

Not sure how many of these would fit the bill but things on my to-watch list, when the OH is away: Godzilla Minus One, Fall of the House of Usher, Nope (all Netflix). Am slowly working through The Boys; can really recommend the latest Fargo on Prime – not horror or sci fi but rollicking good fun!

Gotta be traveller’s cheques, but ONLY if carried in some sort of bumbag thing under your t-shirt. Otherwise they’re officially worthless.

History tells us the guys looking after Pogacar have been part of some of the worst doping scandals in recent years. Menchov, Cobo, Ballan, Scaponi and the king of them all Riccò (remember the CERA and outrageous blood transfusions).

Jeez, that does put it in perspective. Having tasted success that way, it’s tough to imagine them trying to do it all clean now. A lion never changes its pyjamas, and all that!

Well in that case they can get even further into the sea!

The ones that spell it out in letters can get in the sea, too.

“Organic smash burger and skin-on chunky chips, Ten”. GTF

What do you use the Bridge for? Is it just to boost your wifi/ set up a network for your Play:1s, or do you have it plugged into a hifi or somesuch?

If it’s the former, apparently you may not need it: https://en.community.sonos.com/what-to-get-228989/do-i-need-the-sonos-bridge-6822494

If it’s the latter (which I use my Connect for), a Sonos Connect Gen 1 should be fine – you can pick them up dirt cheap on eBay, and they still work with the S1 app.

To add some balance I have Sonos in two houses and the new app has always worked great.

Great stuff! Tbf mine works fine, but that’s partly because I refused to upgrade to the new app :D

This is music to my ears (see what i did there…IGMC) I’ve just spent the last few days trying to get my Sonos Play 1s to be recognised on the app to no avail. I thought i’d made a breakthrough with the possibility that the Bridge unit was not working. But if it’s app related then it’s at least fixable.

Are you using the legacy Sonos S1 controller app (grey icon)? It’s possible the Bridge is kaput; there seems to be a thread that older devices have very limited RAM and it is gradually chewed up by firmware updates until they’re unusable (many of the user complaints seem to be around the Connect: Amp specifically).

If you’re using the new app instead, it could well be that. Sonos claim that in August they’ll add back in the ability to downgrade speakers or systems to the S1 app (those speakers that are compatible with it) – which is what I’ll be doing with my Play:1s, Play:3 and Connect.

If you’re on Android, and comfortable doing so, revert your app to an older version https://techissuestoday.com/heres-how-to-roll-back-to-the-previous-version-of-sonos-app/

Unfortunately one of the things removed from the new Sonos app (phone part) is the ability to downgrade to the Sonos S1 app (the forked older version); one of the things removed from the new firmware (speaker part) updates is the ability to use an older version of the Sonos S2 app. So not only are you locked into a non-functional piece of software, you can’t even downgrade it to the older, functional, one

aha, a fun topic in which I’ve become immersed. If you have the time, check out reddit.com/r/sonos.

The short version is it’s not your internet or wifi. In May, Sonos rammed out an update to its app (the controller that sits on your phone) that completely rewrote how the app interacts with your network, your speakers and the internet. And it doesn’t work; they have been firefighting ever since, trying to add back in features that were removed, make it more reliable etc.

The real issue is that in updating the app, Sonos also updated the speaker software (ie the backend firmware that enables your speaker to talk to anything around it); and the most recent firmware updates mean that your speakers will not work without the latest (non-functional) app update.

The good-ish news is that Sonos is pushing out updates to fix it as quick as they can, and it’s apparently better than it was; the bad news is it still ain’t what it was before this ridiculous decision to change the app.

I’d say it’s disabled only, M-F 8-6; then open to all at all other times, with a max 3 hour stay

Oooh, timely thread revival – I’m in a v similar position to Alpin so will get onto the NI helpline to find out where I’m at, I guess

The carbon monoxide piece has been picked up (a bit) by the Guardian’s coverage of yesterday’s stage, with teams admitting they’re using it to “measure” oxygenation. Given the dangers it’s presumably ripe for the UCI to stop pretending it didn’t know about it and ban anything involving carbon monoxide?

Thanks for the suggestions. Schitts Creek we watched (it’s basically a requirement if you’re in Canada), the OH liked Working Moms, Archer is stone cold classic; good shout on parks and rec and brooklyn 99!

We just finished Fisk on Netflix, really recommend it as a quiet, easygoing Aussie comedy to watch at the end of the night – after, say, Mayor of Kingstown or Kin, to help you get to sleep.

Can anyone recommend something similarly low-key but still worth watching – what Simon Mayo’s taken to calling a ‘softener’, I think, along the lines of Colin from Accounts, Fisk, The Let Down, Clarkson’s Farm etc

S2 of Mayor of Kingstown is looking pretty good so far; and S2 of Kin is also (within 1 episode) more compelling than the first series. Bit weird watching Aiden Gillen in 2 shows at the same time, mind

Kryton57Full Member
A PSA from anyone in London over the weekend, I have an invite from Watcho in Richmond which I can’t use to attend their “Grand Seiko” day on Saturday 13th between 10am-7pm, with goodies drinks, exclusives and offers.   If anyone wants it PM me with your email address and I’ll send it on for you to enjoy some watches and Seiko execs from Japan.

That’d be right up my street… if I didn’t live in Ireland!

Talk of the new Aqua Terra further up, I saw a couple of reviews of them over the weekend; it’s an interesting move from Omega – and an “interesting” price they’re trying to charge for them! I’m a big AT fan, particularly as the bracelets have evolved into more robust and reliable ones; but the plain black lacquer just looks a bit… plain. It doesn’t have the appeal of, say, a Rolex Explorer I (which it’s clearly pitched against), and the quality of the movement really doesn’t make up for that

The Jaws set has made the news, it seems. All the incentive you need!

https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/lego-unveils-jaws-brick-set-recreating-showdown-shark?utm_source=chartr&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=chartr_20240710

I guess googling “invoice template” might be a good a start as any.

Pretty much what I did when I started out! Nothing else to add – everyone else has covered it all

Lovely idea, and the researching is part of the excitement!

Laverack is my aspiration, they are some lovely looking bikes. Reilly was also on my radar when I was looking for something similar a while back; also check out Ribble. Their frames probably aren’t quite as lush, but they have the CGR for more gravelly type stuff, and an endurance frame too, with various builds – you can get it with Di2 for <£5k if you’re that way inclined. I have a CGR Ti in the basic build, upgraded a few bits over time (stem, seatpost, wheels) and am pretty happy with it all.

Nah, bollocks to them – another example of companies just not giving a toss about end customers. I’d be changing to a different brand tbh

There is life after Brexit it’s just a little more involved and you need more money but I’d definately  give it a go.(Sat in my pants 24°c with a high of 32°c later)

But tbf we can all do that now – just need to turn the heating up a bit in our British homes… ;)

Yes! A year ago at a Springsteen concert I got pissed off that a mate could do it and I couldn’t, so I went away and watched the video. My mate told me it took him a year of practising every day before he could do it consistently; I can do it sometimes, but don’t practice it enough to be able to do it every time

Bit dusty in here*. Reading this obviously to try to offer some support, but also because my Dad’s very slowly slipping away and not verbal/ entirely there, and I don’t know what I’ll do when the time comes (assuming I know it’s The Time). Some really helpful pointers here.

I’d just chuck in something that’s sometimes useful: afterwards, how do you think you’d want to have done it? What’s going to give you most peace of mind, knowing that you said it, and that it went that way? As best you can, if you can use that as a guide, it’ll at least help reduce the guilt or regrets.

For the machine, if froth is important I’m a big fan of the Sage Barista line. The coffee is endlessly tweakable (grind size, amount, temperature, etc), and the frothing wand is excellent. There are even options that auto-froth I think.

Delonghi machines do a great shot time after time in my experience with no real tweaking, but I don’t love the frothing options quite as much

Another member of the club here. 4 rounds, 1 “free” (but we still had to pay for the injections, so ~$10k) and 3 private. ICSI didn’t work, and the final round was really a balls to the wall “if this doesn’t work we’re done”. It’s expensive, emotionally draining and hard work; and even if you go  private it can feel that the professionals aren’t necessarily hugely sympathetic. And as a lot of people have said, it’s something We Don’t Talk About, which makes it even tougher and more lonely.

All I can say is good luck, and try to keep calm through it all. And from personal experience, if you can separate out the “OMG this is our only chance!!” emotional anxiety from it, it may help a little to survive it all – but it’s tough to do so.