haha yeah i sure do, cant go around transporting psych patients on the back on a tandem or sitting on the handlebars of my mtb…. i'd love to invest in a roadbike and be fit enough to ride to work, but i need to be able to jump in a car without notice and drive to different units often up to 50ish miles away :(

they should give them to fat people and kids who live that little bit too far away from school to walk…. just a thought.

"captain danger Furguson"
"doctor danger Furguson"
"Yourin danger Furguson"
"getoffthatcounterandwashthosebloodyhands Furguson"
"velociraptor Furguson"
"professor Furguson"

stabalisers on the FS and tow it using the HT…..

yes, i know im a genius.

out of all the things listed i think being a dad/mum is the most impressive and something that scares the hell out of me.

this thread is awesome! it appears everyones a bit more interesting than the normal grumpy posts would suggest :D

shame a couple of people have looked at it with a "nobody has had a life outside the computer so must be making this stuff up" attitude… but then again they might not have seen it as an opportunity to learn about some of the cool/interesting stuff people have achieved or been invovled with in their lives.

i've personally loved this thread… its fascinating stuff everyones been invovled with and really shows how exciting life can be at times.

my list was a mix of stuff i've been proud of and in some cases unfortunate enough to be involved in… but all of it has made me who i am in a way, and for that fact i have no regrets.

this thread has also reminded me of other cool/life changing stuff thats happened that i might have forgotten otherwise so for that i'm pretty thankful :)

been on tv (the news filmed the bungee jump cos it was for charity.. not my choice as scared of heights)
had a poem published
released an album
had sue pollard in my house (she scared the life out of me, think i cried at the side of my mums leg haha)
found 2 people hanging themselves, only managed to save one of them :(
been hit on the head by timmy mallet's mallet
turned down a 3some (biggest regret ever)
held the dead body of my 2 year old cousin (f*ck you cancer! – this pretty much changed the entire direction of my life)

i'm genuinely inspired by a lot of peoples posts…. as one of my favourite songs gos:

"The fallen comrades show you how
Because the time is now
Regrets mean nothing
All the decisions you’ve made make you who you are

As time moves on
Live life while you can
Tomorrow holds no promise
Its in your hands"

sounds awesome SSS :)

kudos on the suicidal girl thing too, been there a couple of times and its not an easy job!!

sold out venues up to 800 as main act, sold out venues up to 1200 (apparently according to venue owners… i think a bit smaller) as main support. main support to skindred was my favourite show.. only a 600cap venue, but the owners are dodgy and crammed 750+ in there, split the crowd down the middle and commanded a wall of death that had enough of an impact to shake the computer monitor off a desk upstairs which broke haha. the first show my girlfriend saw us perform at :) handy as a crap venue with wrong crowd would'nt have been impressive at all.

haha i was younger than 14… i was about 9 and at some event, the TA had set up a tower for under16s to abseil down… i got strapped in and went over the edge…. just let go until i realise i was going to hit the ground, grabbed and swung back into the wall about 1ft from the ground…. needless to say whoever was meant to be watcting me got a bo11oxing and i scared my parents!

does that make it a little more awesome?

I have:

Driven over 100mph
Sailed a boat
Killed a creature with my car
held the hands of a few people as they've died
stabbed my best mate in the knee with a scalpel
had about 40% of myself tattood
bungee jumped
re-broken an old ladies arm whilst flying a kite
abseiled
been responsible for getting a few murderers back into the community
been to amsterdam (that explains all i'm willing to admit to online)
performed on stage in front of sold out crowds
:) must stop before this list keeps growing and incriminates me ;)

haha would make a good euphemism!

jsut never been abroad anywhere lower than greece, would love to.

never fired a gun, dont really want to
never seen a great white shark…. really want to
never seen the nothern lights… really want to

why not jsut leave a polite note on the window saying "hey, i noticed your tyres are looking pretty bald, at the moment its 3 points for each tyre under the limit and a fine… i know how easy it is not to notice bald tyres, but the police seem to be much quicker to notice than us normal drivers! hope you dont mind the note… just thought it might help :)"

?

nice and polite, havent left your name or anything, then if you notice it continue to drive with bald tyres then you know you're dealing with someone who is driving knowing they're not safe.. then its time to rethink the polite approach, but until then everyone seems to be working on a lot of assumptions about a car/driver.

remember the first and second rule 16 stone pig…. shhhhhh

her name was Heather…. cheated on me though so my memories of her have been knocked down on the fondness scale

big +1 on the dont grip too hard…. my first few rides killed my hands as despite remembering to keep my elbows loose my grip was too tight…. doesnt help the bike move underneath you!

also along with all the good advice above… when you stand up on the pedals…. keep your knees bent and flexible…. took me a couple of rides to get out of the habit of standing up and locking my legs againt the saddle as i sat further back…. meant that my knees were slightly bent but i had no movement…

you sound like my girlfriends current riding level, out of interest you mentioned owning a mtb… but unless i've missed a post… is yours a hardtail or full-suss? also is it one of those horrific halfords appolos? (they dont help build confidence when riding!)

Trail_rat is on the money there…. it will look rubbish for a while, but dreads teach patience.

Mollski:

three ways really:

1) Grow your hair long, section it off and then backcomb it nice and tight, dont use wax or beeswax or toothpaste or whatever the internet tells you, be prepared for it to shrink shorter or not look like its growing at all for ages.

As your hair continues to grow the knots will be tightening hence the appearance of it getting shorter or not growing. To keep the roots of the dreadlocks tight and less fluffy: use a teatowel and press firmly against your scalp… then rub it in small circles (pick a direction – clockwise or anti-clockwise and stick with it… by rubbing in the opposite direction you'll undo your good work)… this circling will break the odd hair at the root and tangle it into the dreads.

let them grow, buy a bigger phone book for all the new ladies you'll be collecting.

2) From short hair: have your hair braided in the smalled braids you can achieve.. all over your hair. you'll look stupid for 2-3 months as it grows out… but all the hair that grows out from under the braids will be growing into dreadlocks that are already tight and natural with no wax etc.

To keep the roots of the dreadlocks tight and less fluffy: use a teatowel and press firmly against your scalp… then rub it in small circles (pick a direction – clockwise or anti-clockwise and stick with it… by rubbing in the opposite direction you'll undo your good work)… this circling will break the odd hair at the root and tangle it into the dreads.

once the dreadlock part of the hair is 3inches long, cut off the braids from the ends.

let them grow, buy a bigger phone book for all the new ladies you'll be collecting.

3)grow your hair long, dont brush it, wash it regularly in a cycle but with cheap shampoo only (less perfumes and addatives left on your scalp and hair). as it starts to knot up rip it into smaller sections. follow the advice above re wax and rubbing the scalp…

let them grow, buy a bigger phone book for all the new ladies you'll be collecting.

whatever you do…. dont use wax, dont use conditioner, dont forget to wash your hair once you feel its tight enough not to fall apart.

hope that helps dude

does anyone know of any animals that have been succesfully taught to drive? i dont think i could ever live with someone who doesnt drive.

failing that… maybe a gulper eel… there's no way one of them can claim to have a gag reflex.

Alex222…. i never claimed to be harder, and i also made a point of saying "Having not riden "ooop norf" i cant comment"

using a beginner who hasnt riden for 15 years (or done pretty much any exercise in those 15 years) as an example of southern riders is like saying all northeners are short, overweight, missing half their teeth, on benefits, sporting a massive beer belly and the IQ of a reporter for the daily sport…. this is my experience of northeners from touring… :wink:

sandhurst for my sins….. i'm up for it at some point, need to work on my bike-fitness for a while first… that ride was a killer as i've only been riding about 2-3 months after a 15 year gap. still not able to handle much more than 10miles (with a lot of stops) at the mo due to a busted shoulder and a social life organised behind my back by the vagina.

BigDummy….

is this how the world looks through your eyes?

mmmmm sexy animals

Having not riden "ooop norf" i cant comment, but i do love Swinley….. 3rd ride there consisted of 13 miles of singletrack, longest time spent on a fire-road was cutting across it to get back on more singletrack, since then i've only found one of those sections again!

cant believe i've lived here for 4-5 years and didnt realise what was on my doorstep.

thisisnotaspoon… so which is it, swinley or peaks?

set up an competition for people who travel to other countries and teach english, then dont let her enter, the winner will be the hottest girl with the most awesomely proportioned breasts, the prize:

to fulfil every sexual fantasy your ex wouldnt ;)

This, coupled with takeaway and shiney bike bits surely has to be the best coping strategy?

used to carry a lighter even though i dont smoke for that very reason!

anyone on this thread looked into Joseph Cambell?

i used to be athiest, i still am, but i no longer get angry at the religous.

when playing a prank on specimin reception at our local hospital (we gave in a 1ltr coffee jar full of white creamy liquid labelled as a sperm sample) dad calmly said "i know its not much, but it always looks a lot more when its spread all over your chest"

*in addition to the above….

there are also so incredibly nice people out there with dreads (not just the 17yr old wannabes in a rock club wearing a UV t-shirt and new-rocks), to them their own dreads will be the nicest in the world, and fair play to them. it takes a lot of patience to look after dreads whether you do the whole wax thing or the completely natural thing.

when it comes down to it….
we're all individuals and having dreadlocks is much more interesting than walking out the hairdressers with the same haircut as the rest of the world!

oh yeah…. in the past 11 years i've not spent a single penny on a hair-cut *insert smug smile and sense of achievement* :D

why not "do a fight club" and get yourself and project mahem up and funded for a year?

if it helps (deep down i hope it doesn't) then when it comes to other people's dreadlocks I usually dont like them. especially people with synthetic dreadlocks… for a lot of people it seems to be about the image, and when these people usually approach me and start asking questions it usually becomes apparent rather quickly that random-teenager-X has dreads for the reasons stated in many of the anti-dreads posts in this thread.

so for this reason i'll give a nugget of golden advice:

if you want to p1ss off your parents/society/teachers/boss, dont get dreadlocks…. you'll be much better off getting your face and throat tattoo'd so as you get older you'll be reminded of how worthwhile it was and what you achieved by rebelling.

save the dreadlocks for people who can handle the extra female attention ;)

anyway, i must be off, me and my troll brothers are off to burn our belts in an effort to see how low our baggy jeans with "spliffy" written on them can go haha

Cheers elfinsafety, this forums been amusing me for some time now… I do love to read an online fight every now and then! STW seems to provide a delicious mix of keyboard warriors, incredible tales, handy advice and some VERY funny people.

Who's fred? i'm Phil :)

First post after stalking the forum for a couple of weeks so figured it should be on a subject I've got some experience with….

I've had dreadlocks for 11 years in total, my first set I had for 2 years and cut off, then immediately started growing the set I've still got today.

A few points to mention:

1)I'm not religous, never have been.
2) my hair (when not dreaded) is straight and a little thin if i remember correctly.
3) My dreadlocks were never a way of "rebelling" as i've never felt the need to rebel.
4) I'm white british with no family members/affairs known of that would've influenced my hair and its suitability for dreading.
5) I clean my dreadlocks in the same way that I'm guessing most of you wash your hair… shampoo and water.
6) My dreadlocks have never been a barrier to employment.

OK so here goes:

First set of dreads I did the stereotypical white-boy thing and grew my hair long, sectioned it off, backcombed it then used whatever wax the internet told me to. They were thick, too neat to look remotely natural, waxy and most probably… smelly. I woke up with a waxy pillow each morning, had dreadlocks that seemed to take days to dry and when I cut them off the hardened wax in the centre of them made me realise the error of my ways.

I did everything wrong and didnt help with the stereotype.

I then cut these off thinking I'd need to to get the job I wanted, got the job and was told I didnt need to cut them off and should grow them again….

This time I grew them from 1" long freshly cut hair, no wax, no sectioning, no backcombing, just letting it dread naturally. 9 years later I still have "the nicest dreads I've seen on a white boy" and in my job working with workers from various african countries I quite regularly get asked by people of various African/Carribean origins (with and without dreads) how I got mine so nice and what they should do to theirs. One of my patients was a rasta as was his family, they asked if I was… I said no… they said "cool locks, nice to see a nice set"

The only abuse I've had about my hair is from white chavs, and a gang (all of which had short hair, girlfriends with chemically straightened hair) who said they wanted their haircut back haha.

So in my experience:

Wax is bad (its designed to hold hair in place… dreads are knots and knots get tighter by being allowed to move)

Sectioning and backcombing usually ends up with dreads that dont look natural (think of the perfect center-parting and uniform thickness)

Dirty dreadlocks are similar to waxy dreads…. they hold moisture and never tighen up properly = dirty smells, dirty reputation.

If you're good at your job… hair doesnt get in the way of that, and a good employer will know that.

Will try find some pictures if anyones bothered… chances are this threads died though so i'll hold back for now.

oh yeah…. Hi everyone :)