Live in Murthly having moved about 6 years back. Love it. 25 minutes into Perth, 10 to Dunkeld. 5 min onto the A9. Unlimited road biking from my door, great classic hill loops on the mtb as well. Plenty of more techy stuff if wanted. hour and a bit into the central belt if needed. Houses are cheaper here like for like than in Dunkeld but still a really nice wee village. Primary school is excellent. Kids default at secondary into Perth although we are right on the catchment so probably going to opt for Breadalbane in Aberfeldy. One thing to note for Aberfeldy is that it is surprisingly far off the A9, although it is lovely. Pitlochry is very touristy but te upper bits seem nicer. Feel free to DM if you have Qs

I have just read the piece by Nick Kempe posted by scotroutes. Given that I am fully aware of the rationale behind the trial, and of the challenges of pinewood regeneration in a core pinewood area, I can only say that I wish he had actually come and ask questions before throwing stones.

Thanks folks. Some food for thought there. The 2700 is on the low side of reasonable. It also does not take into account new number plates for trailers and carriers, new roof bars, etc. Also we live in reasonably rural Perthshire so we at best will have to go to Glasgow or Edinburgh, so even if COVID tiers allow this, where my time and mileage and childcare factored into this? Reason for claiming on their insurance was because it was their accident. Maybe should have claimed through ours…

Which bit of Scotland are you? I’m in Perthshire and could give it a home

The jungle is neutral by Freddy Spencer-chapman

Outrageous refusal to succumb to a grim list of tropical diseases whilst fighting behind Japanese lines and trying to organise Chinese communist guerillas

Proper boys own stuff

I love my trx. Mine is a 10+ year old forces bundle. Still looking good and no signs of wear. I’ve not got experience of any copies, but trx is certainly over built. Which is nice to know when you’re hanging from it. The foam handles are definitely a potential point of wear as you are shoving your trainers into the loops, so that’s definitely something to look at. Certainly since I got mine the suspension has improved. I use a climbing daisy chain and carabiner to make up for shortfalls in the mkI version. Suspension height helps instability which is great for training. You’re also going to need the height for any upper back work as your arms will be above your head, potentially to full reach – and the trx is above that. I’m a short arse 5’5” and tether mine at 7’ ish or above. Trx is not great for straight pull-ups (those pull up toggles look good) but with ingenuity you can get pretty solid workouts, and certainly a range of pulls. You have definitely got to concentrate on “squeezing “ out best form when using it in many exercises as it can get a bit cheaty. Mine goes in my rucksack when travelling in case I can squeeze in a session. It has also been really good for building fitness and mobility back up after training lay-off and injury.

matt_outandabout
Subscriber

The bit I’m finding distasteful is the sense of entitlement and lack of environmental and community awareness that so many of the comments on FB show.
That’s on the Cathro and Cannock posts.

We’ve had issues here this summer with illegal trails and rudeness to landowners. Lack of understanding of liability, other trail users, SSSI or sensitive sites (“it’s only a forest”) and an underlying DILLIGAF attitude from many just doesn’t help.

There are rules to this game, No.1 being the one that too many riders forget

^^^^^^^^^^^^ this

Pretty amazed / saddened at some of the attitudes expressed.

Do people really think that the FC / NRW / FLS don’t understand mountain bikers and trail development? Of course they do. Many staff ride too. But they have a large area of land to manage towards a lot of competing objectives – of which biking is but one. And this has to be done in a grown up world where there is case law on landowners responsibility and where people complain and sue.

Rule No. 1 – don’t be a ……

I’ve always just made the of old pallets – helps the air flow to keep on drying the wood out. A pallet base to keep off the floor and keep logs dry. Add a sloping top using sawn timber and some corrugated sheeting – about an inch drop a foot. The top sheeting is the most expensive bit followed by getting a bunch of big screws and some timber from the store. Pallets about a quid a piece!

time, rest, fluids – about it.

I had 2 weeks off work with mine – forget biking.

If you feel up to it, a short walk will get some fresh air into you – but don’t over-do it.

Remember – flu kills people, its nasty.

although food and eating is a big part of the problem, it’s not all of it.

I’d love to have more time to exercise, I do what I can crammed into a busy life, but there are often 2 or more days a week when because of work I don’t have time.

Government can’t expect people working 50 hour office weeks, commutes, with kids and other commitments, to be as active as desirable.

We need to reduce the long hours culture in this country.

I lived in Bangor for a wonderful 5 years – loved it

As said before, great location for anything outdoorsey. Marin and Penmachno pretty close, snowdon, tons of natural stuff – sigh…

It’s a university town, so slightly more going on than might be expected.

It is a bit shabby in parts and there are nowhere near the amenities of Edinburgh, but it is wayyyyyy cheaper.

Out of interest, what is Mrs V8 going to be doing? and what are you going to do? Bear in mind that the north of wales is the very welsh speaking bit and jobs, particulalry in public sector, will often require bilingualism.

And I’m searching all the windows for a last minute present
to prove to you that what I said was real,
for something small and frail and plastic, baby,
’cause cheap is how I feel

Cowboy Junkies

Have you looked into the STAR / competency-based way of assessments? I’m only saying as a great deal of HR seem to be going over to this form of scoring. Instead of relying on someone with a knowledge of the work area to make an informed decision based on the posts and work areas you include on your CV, you have to provide examples of working behaviour. My view is that it tends to favour blaggers, the less-skilled and experienced. If you have lots of genuine experience and are good at what you do it seems very clunky and unsatisfactory. It actively puts a low value on depth of experience and knowledge.

lit review – fundamental – don’t go reinventing the wheel, use whatever software you like for citations and paper storage…

Objectives – no doubt you will be handed some – use to define the scope of project

Project Manage – you can only do so much – try and build a project plan, try to stick to or exceed it. If things are changing (they will) be realistic and replan.

Objectives 2 – as everythiing has now gone sideways and you can now prove you can’t meet objectives, work out new objectives and timescale

Reading – Keep on top of reading, sign up to citation alerts, feed in all useful stuff to citation software and UPDATE YOUR LIT REVIEWS. No point submitting with somethiing 2 years out of date

Supervisor – yup, learn how to drive early on, communicate as much as possible, assess the risk of them wandering off halfway through (seen this alot)

Experiments – you’re lucky, you should be ablre to break experiments into chapters/papers – makes life easier and is easier to project manage

Writing – always, always, always write up anything (even the more scribbly notes) as if you are going to include in a paper – chapter intro, lit, methods, results etc. Saves so much time, you can just cut and paste…

writing 2 – structure and justification – major things for examiners (they are not mind readers) and helps for you to spot flaws/weak areas

Data – get on top of it – analyse asap – see where you are going, what is working, you don’t want to get a huge lump of work done only to find out it is irrelevent.

Stats and maths – major things in examination – examiners love pickiing holes in setup and analysis.

Software – identify the analysis packages yo will need and get happy with them

network – don’t reinvent the wheel again

Treat it like a job – work regular hours, get in your 40 hours minimum a week. self discippline. Aim to finish within the period you are paid for or very soon after. Write-up almost certainly will get hellish though

Enjoy the Finnish girls 😈

got massively hacked off with BT when they spectacularly failed to move our service when we moved house – 3 months without a landline.
An absolute shower of s**t. Got stuck in circular arguments which led only to raised blood pressure. My sympathies to CG.

We moved to the phone coop and so far have been massively impressed – get this – real people on the call centre, who call you back, and sort stuff out, and show discression and initiative. You even get a single, named, point of contact for problems. How life used to be… (and I’m not even that old)

Try crossfit – workout of the day (WOD) generally done in 20 minutes or less after warmup and skills practice. 20 minutes can’t be that hard can it? One of the central tennets is that you don’t get stuck into the same exercises all the time, so your body never quite adapts…

It’s no coincidence the programme mascot is called Pukey the clown!

regulalry has me in pieces, on the floor, trying to breathe through my ears

If your leg looks like that you have got a local infection at the bite site and/or you are developing the classic lymes bulls-eye.

Either way, get some medical help.

lots of good info here:

http://www.tickbitepreventionweek.org/bada-uk.html

Don’t take tick bites lightly – I’ve had a friend collapse with blood poisoniing after a tick bite got infected, another had lymes undetected for 10 years and ended up in a wheelchair and on oxygen (now greatly improved after serious meds) I’ve known quite a few others who have long-term health problems associated with it.

better safe than sorry really

Dr Pippin – Forest Harvesting – 3 years about cutting down trees and chopping them up. Currently employed in working how to cut more trees down and burn them

Oh, and about 150 people

Ewan,

I got hitched back in september and the whole thing cost us only £3700. That includes outfits and rings!

We did a registry office and then hired a Scout campsite which had a hall and kitchen with it.

Everyone camped and brought something to eat and drink. We got in a ceilidh band and hog roast, got a keg from the local brewery and bought some wholsale fizz. We put on a big fry-up for the next morning too.

Great time was had by all!

+1 for TJ

I also cycle toured Brittany running hope mono minis and a standard rack. I just used spacers – 3-4mm thick washers, to move the strut away from the caliper. was absolutely fine. My only gripe (if even a gripe) was that out of the saddle honking with loaded panniers leads to massive frame flex.

er – which one?

and also, don't miss out on Drumlanrig castle whilst you are in the area – Rik has put in some lovely trails there with a completely different feel to the FC stuff.

second for the mussel inn

You aren’t getting charged for anything, so no biggie there.

The BIG issue is that your wife’s car reg. plate may have been cloned.

This could definitely do with some chasing up, just so you don’t get their parking tickets and speeding fines coming through the door!

On a serious note G,

this happened to a friend of mine – was accused of abusing parking in the town LIDL.

Someone was wandering around with her number plate though as the vehicle make and colour recorded were nowhere close to a match.

If Tesco is making a case against you, they need to prove that you car (i.e. make and colour) was there, not just your number plate.

Hope that helps…

I remeber staying in some more modern halls a while back that had a bike lock-up in the basement. You would need a resident’s key to get down there and you could throw as many locks around your pride and joy as you saw fit.

Definitely agree that actually keeping them in your room may be problematic space and accomodation-office policy wise. Best check what the room size is, what the bed type is (you cant get a bike under a cabin bed), what the policy is, is there proper inside locked storage and if you can chat to the mtb club, would be worth doing. Have a look on the university student union web pages, should find links to all the clubs.

Is a nice forest but flat as a pancake – I went wine shopping instead

The whole thing is a bloated cash cow for people of limited ability.

I’m sorry Lanesra – I’m going to take personal exception to that – being as I am technically part of this “bloated” establishment – obviously me only having a PhD shows my limited ability and of course being one of the 10 or so most able folk in my field in Europe shows that I’m just not up to the task.
All this for about 25K and a 44 hour minimum week and no chance of a final salary scheme any more – sounds like a gravy train to you?

They are FUN – thats all there is to it – pure unadulterated hooliganism, throw them around, treat em like you hate em, ride it like you stole it FUN.

You are more in touch with the trail due to having to be constantly moving body around – not having the get out clause of sitting on your suspension. Harder work – definitely, but worth it for the fun of the ride. Less maintenance issues as well.

I used some sludge tubes a while back – I’ll say one thing, they’ll get you fit, the extra rotating mass is really noticable. They didn’t seem to cope that well with the monster blackthorn and hawthorns we were beset with.

father inlaw had one not so long back and it wasn’t so much the physical discomfort after, more the subsequent infection and the hefty course of antibiotics.

Ian puts some good points. If you are going to take the full £25K, you should not be relying on your university for anything – IT, indemnity, facilities, library, accountant etc. There’s a reason good consultancy costs a lot – your overheads get silly quite quickly. Also, you must be careful not to tread on your department’s toes or publish anything that will be detrimental to it. If you are considering jumping to self employed, think long and hard. I went self employed for a bit and found out very quickly that if the work dries up you lose out very rapidly. £400 a day sounds great until you take away overheads and find you are only going to be working 1 day in 10.
Have you considered that simply bringing in consultancies as part of your post doc is browny points? Not quite research grants but still good links with industry and showing ability to generate incoome – both very useful for future job wranglings…

this thread is pointless without pictures

This is all sounding very familiar. I’ve now known 2 people who have had undiagnosed Lymes really mess them up – one of them only diagnosed after 10 years of ME diagnosis left her in a wheelchair on oxygen. Huge courses of antibiotics have helped stop the decline but there has still been a lot of irreversible damage done. The standard UK test and the ignorance of much of the medical profession is another recurrent theme. The 10year+ case was eventually sorted through private specialist diagnosis.

the downs will definitely be more fun with some boing up front – the middle bits are quite flat or contour-ey so no big probs there – I normally ride it on a 2×9 hardtail and wind out the forks to allow proper hooning at the end.

you sure he was actually an FC employee and not some anti-cyclist trying to sound important?

regardless, scaring the deer is the most ridiculous excuse I’ve ever heard.

Rogers is just throwing his toys out of the pram on this one and tbh it requires someone with some clout like Charles to stand up to him.

I wasn’t too impressed by Rogers arguments on R4 this morning – very much just sour grapes, nothiing of any substance.

A lot of architects are disappearing up their own arses and happy to pat each others backs whilst doing so. Very much like the art scene – if you don’t “get it” or appreciate it you are clearly an uneducated luddite and not worthy of comment.

I love my hammocks.

I have a proper camping one with mossi-net for nights out and a lounge in the garden job too.

Both have karabiners at either end and I use long tapes to tie around trees, wall anchors etc and then back to the biners. Using the tapes I can tension the hammocks as I want to have them flatter (my preference) or bendier. Check out DD hammocks for tips.

Where there are limited suspension points I have seen people using bipods at either end (two stout sticks tied together. The tapes can then be used to tension down to a ground anchor.

I always sleep so well in hammocks.

The downside for instead of a bed use is that, it is indeed, difficult to shag in a hammock. Although not impossible 😉

As a shameless plug, my hennessy hammock is on fleabay at the moment…

richc is far closer to the real state of affairs.

I know of one case involving a czech carpenter who the police decided to stop and search. In his tool bag he had 5 razor sharp chisels. And a small lock knife given to him by his girlfriend for peeling his fruit at lunch. As the lock knife was not a tool necessary for his job he was prosecuted successfully, although at least the court witheld any sentance or fine.

The knife was still in its packaging.

The law is an ass and the CPS are also being pushed by our dear politicians to prosecute to fudge the statistics.