If only I’d remembered this one yesterday…a Harrier jump jet, a few bowser/engineer type vehicles and some suprised looking RAF lads in a firebreak between two woods on Stanford Common. Apparently it wasn’t that uncommon in the early 90s!

That won’t be happening anymore… :-(

Lots of snakes too – warming up on tracks and roads in Greece and Croatia during Spring, and this lil’ beaut of an adder in the North Downs:

This was quite amusing:

Above La Manga Club in Spain.

We believe he was German.[/url]

Rolling round a corner to see a field of kangeroos in the half-light of dusk (it was by Whipsnade Wildlife Park)

Riding with a badger running parallel at the edge of my light beam on a solo night ride – very strange hearing this thundering animal a few metres from you, but only catching occasional shadowy glimpses of it.

Whilst guiding in Spain, leading a nice middle-aged lady by a Seat parked off a track in a field – two heads popped up as we passed by.

Also while in Spain, frequently seeing the Spanish Red Arrows performing manouvres – they were based a few miles down the road.

While guiding in Grenada, riding past a drunken knife fight (it should be pointed out that a knife fight in Grenada involves machetes, not flick knives)

While guiding in Austria, leading a group of 14-18 yr old lads to a watering trough, only to find a gorgeous red-head sunbathing topless next to it. After greeting her with a cheerful ‘guten tag!’ she wished me the same, smiled and continued sunning herself belly-up while I tried to herd the group a few meters back, so that while their eyes were hanging out in stalks at least they couldn’t at least touch.

There’s more, but I really should do some work.

The Blur LT2 climbs better than the five on technical stuff, the 5 is so much better going down hill,and for me a bike that gives you more confidence, in technical situations, I have a new 5 and I have owned a Heckler and Nomad and test rode several Blurs Lt2’s for me the 5 gives the most rewarding ride of them all, the Nomad was also a fantastic bike, which was probably more capable than the 5 but you never felt the same good feeling after the ride, it was too good for your normal trails.

Did you breath while you were writing that? :wink:

311 – Grassroots

Best album they made. Every album since has been progressively worse.

Zesty or Five.

Ride them both, buy the one that fits/feels better.

That is all.

:D

The commuter, earlier this year (the first of four punctures!)

The IO, yesterday.

One fundamental thing?

I have no figures without doing research so there is an element of conjecture to this, but I would say the National Health Service and education funding.

(Please note – funding and not introducing unnecessary amounts of mind-numbing cr@p)

(and yes – that’s two things)

Either that or totally erased.

Maybe a lot of the damage Thatcher did is actually irreversible.

Brown would have found it hard to reopen the pits or buy back Sealink…

If you are thinking long term don’t join the RAF as it’s days are number IMHO, especially when the carrier(s) arrive.

Are they the ones with no planes? :wink:

Training, the core is Sunday which is either a cx race or a hardriders club run.
Tuesday is off road with the fast group.
Then I add Tuursday evening solo ride and a Saturday pre race road ride.
Turbos in between.
Summer I’ll sometimes race Crits Tuesday evenings.
Can’t commute as I need my car, there are occasions when I can though.

8O

I ran 2.4 RQs (non UST) when they first came out on my 819s – no problem.

Have 2.2 UST RQs now, all good.

Have you thought of getting a custom one? ;-)

Two shots of the ever-changing Five.

Ground Effect fleece skull cap. Covers the ears, fits under a lid.

When it’s uber cold I’ll pull a Buff up over my mouth as well.

Pass me a Special Brew and a fag would you – Neighbours will be on in a bit.

Other way round, car speedo can over read by up to 10%, TBH some car manufacturers seem to do this as a matter of routine, Ford & Nissan cars have hopeless speedos in my experience. I had a Nissan terrano and for that to be doing 70mph as indicated by a sat nav, it was doing an indicated 80mph. If you drove it according to the speedo there was no chance of getting caught speeding and it helped with the fuel economy as well.

My old Focus used to read about 33/34 when it was actually doing 30, so I reasoned that with leniency in camera settings to allow for car mis-calibration (I was lead to believe this was 10%) that my doing 55 in a 50 with average cameras would be fine.

My point was has anyone been caught, or know of anyone who has been caught.

It seems no one has and I have never heard of anyone who has, which seems very strange to me.

My sister’s mate on the M1 in norf London, near Watford.

If my iPod turned into a block of cheese I would start doubting them.

Which iPod do you have? I think mine is already made of cheese…

Hmm. Got a standard Mk.2 in orange at the mo – wondered if the 853 would be any lighter…

No – I must be strong. It’s Xmas soon and I must buy gifts!

Geda – what size and colour?

It’s darker than it is during the day.

Do any designers know how to use a pen or a brush freehand these days?

I’ve heard rumours of these mystical things… :wink:

it involves meeting Chipps at the cross roads just outside Todmorton at three minutes to midnight, during a thunderstorm. we’ve all done it.

I still don’t know why I had to wear suspenders and a tutu. It was the middle of February, FFS.

I love you all.

:D

Sounds ace! :-D

He’s as qualified as Gordon Brown and George Osborne, whether he’d do a better or worse job I have no idea. But arguing that Osborne is unqualified strikes me as unfair – other than an ex-chancellor, who really is qualified to run a country’s economics?

Maybe a senior front bench politician that has seen a few budgets through already?

Or to put it another way – I need a pipe fixed. Who do I call?

A. An experienced plumber
B. An experienced builder who has been in the trade for a long time and can turn his hand to most things
C. A young historian

You called him a “batty boy”, which is homophobic slang for a gay man.

If you wish to read it that way. You obviously aren’t familiar with the wonderful Etonian tradition of ‘fagging’ or the equally fine up-standing Bullingdon tradition ‘de-bagging’.

I’m not saying that Georgie boy is gay, but I am saying that while he was hanging off Cameron’s coat-tails in Oxford as David made waves, I’ve no doubt he was fine and upstanding in the finest of proper English public school traditions.

AFAIK Osborne’s not gay. Not only that, he’s got a 2.1 in modern history from one of Britain’s top universities – and I’d be very surprised if that degree didn’t include a large amount of economic history. He’s actually fairly well qualified as politicians go, certainly better than the Trotskyist ex-lawyer who preceeded him. The worst thing that can be said about his qualifications is perhaps that one Gordon Brown is also an ex-history student…

I didn’t say he was gay. But how much do you know about the Bullingdon Club, and how much do you know about Cameron and Osborne’s relationship?

So he’s a historian. And managing the budget. That’s OK then…

Hang on – my cousin got a first in maths from Oxford. Maybe I should ask him to step up to the challenge instead – he’d be more qualified. Oh no, sorry. He didn’t have enough money to be in the ‘right clubs’ and is now a teacher instead.

Come to think of it, so is his brother who ironically also got a 2:1 in History from Oxford. Maybe I should ask him his views on the budget – he’s obviously well qualified in that area.

Hmm.

I would convert in Photoshop or Illustrator, but it isn’t an exact science, especially when dealing with black.

Would something like this help?

That’s nowt, the opposition bloke is an ex-postie!

:lol:

We’re all doomed! Doooomed I tell you!

I thoroughly enjoyed owning and riding mine. I’d happily buy another.

What does AutoCAD work in? RGB?

More than voted for any of the alternatives. It’s just a shame that a lot of folk on this forum haven’t woken up to that fact yet.

My Dad’s a teacher, my girlfriend is a teacher and my Mum is a Health Visitor.

They are all constantly amazed by colleagues moaning about the Tories, before being asked “so who did you vote for?”

The response is usually “Oh, I voted Tory”

I hate to say it, but what f**king planet are you on? What did you expect from the Tories? Public sector raises? Positive reforms in health? Teachers being allowed to teach rather than fill in all the useless, bureaucratic paperwork that means precisely f*ck-all? the public sector being given *shock!* a raise? A massive investigation into the (w)bankers who f*cked us over in the first place? A higher tax rate for those in the top 5%?

Don’t be so stupid.

Instead we have the PMs batty boy from Bullingdon in the financial hot seat who has precisely no budget experience, apart from the fact he’s being advised by one of the biggest tax dodgers in the country.*

The saving grace is that at least Cameron’s cabinet does have a few political heavyweights in it that know their onions (even if the Liberal heavyweights are leaving in their droves.)

*Technically this isn’t always true – Mr Green is very good about leaving the country when he needs to on his private jet to avoid becoming a UK resident.

Garlic.

Roasted.

Mmmmmmm…

My sister had a meeting with Kate Middleton not so long ago – she’s a buyer and my sister designs hats.

Oh, and my Grandad is mates with Roger Moore.

My Great Grandad taught Fred Perry to play tennis.

Seriously.