Unbeknown to most people, Pavlov’s first experiment was to ring a bell and make his dog attack Schrodinger’s cat.

Oh, and a Freudian Slip is saying one thing and meaning your mother.

Am I the only one interested in the
cricket scores?

Quite possibly. Couldn’t give a hoot, meself (and I live in Yarkshire)

Find a brand that fits your foot basically.

Don’t find a brand, find a specific shoe!
Got back into running in January and got a gait analysis because the Salomon XAs I used to (quite happily) run in started ripping up my arches. After a god couple of hours of analysis, trying different shoes and chatting about the biomechanics, I ended up in Saucony Xodus trail shoes.
6 months of abuse later, back to the same shop for another analysis as the Xodus were starting to wear out and with an Ultra entry in the pipeline I needed something lighter and less bulky. Stepped onto the treadmill and started jogging, only for the shop manager (who is, admittedly, a mate) to watch in confusion, from different angles, for a good ten minutes. In 6 months, my gait has changed completely, without planning, without concious effort. I’ve gone from hypermobile with a normal heel strike to a more stable neutral mid-forefoot strike. So the shoes I would have bought, Saucony Peregrine, had I just gone off-the-peg, wouldn’t have worked for me – and definitely didn’t, when I tried them the second time round.

If you’re thinking of trying minimalist shoes, look for places that specialise in that type of running, go visit, and spend a bit of time. They work with certain gait patterns, and same as with any shoe, you can do more harm than good if you try and force yourself to ‘learn’ that gait.

And emsz – if you say “you don’t get injured, really”, you’re very lucky! I’ve had ankle, knee, back and hip problems for a few years, it’s only regular running with a shoe that fits well that’s helped me work my way from 5k’s to a mountain 50 miler in 8 months.

“I tried to find him on the Christian cross, but He was not there.
I went to the Temples of the Hindus and to the old pagodas but could not find a trace of Him anywhere.
I searched on the mountains and in the valleys but neither in the heights nor in the depths was I able to find Him.
I went to the Caaba in Mecca, but He was not
there either.
I questioned the scholars and philosophers but He was beyond their understanding.
I then looked into my heart and it was there that He dwelled that I saw Him; He was nowhere else to be found.”
– Jelaluddin Rumi

To me, those may be some of the greatest words ever written, and they sum up my belief more prettily than I can. God exists, if only in the hearts and minds of men. He doesn’t exist in my own personal headspace, but I’ve no doubt that he does in other people’s, nor any problem with letting those people believe whatever they want to believe.

Within Temptation are a good cal l, I got hooked by “Ice Queen” a few years back.

Another wildcard – Manakin. Bahraini rock band, sadly split up after one very good album, but their lead singer, Hassan Bin Rashid, had a new album out called “Jackie Oh No”. Nut heard it yet but will be tracking it down soon. For an older track, youtube for Manakin and find “Gun”.

taking a few people’s feet at karate
tournaments
bit harsh? could they not just give you a trophy?

No, I had to take them. They came to me damaged, needed to remove them for repair or replacement.

A#%ing predictive text… Was meant to say “taping”… ffs.

My current 53 plate Skoda Fabia. It’s only little, 1.2 engined, but it’s the first truly reliable car I’ve owned, the first I’ve spent proper money on (£3.5k a year ago with sub 20k on the clock). After a string of max £300 junkers none of which lasted more than 18 months, it’s a breath of fresh air.

It isn’t fast (gets to 60 eventually)
It isn’t fancy (most basic trim spec)

But it gets me where I’m going in reasonable time, doesn’t consume like a Geordie on snakebite, and is cheap to tax and insure. Nae revelations, but I’m glad I own it.

Overstated? Is that predictive for interested?

Yes. Dammit!

Did you hear about the two gay ghosts?

They put the willies up each other.

I’ve ended up taking a few people’s feet at karate tournaments, moreso when they put matting down. Best recommendation is Vulkan tape – sold as climber’s finger tape – in narrow width, then it doesn’t rub on your next toe and cause more blisters.

Rob, what’s your blog address? Would be overstated to read.

Evening.

Or is that just wishful thinking on my part?

Your missus makes trifle with the computer?

How rare…

For a wildcard, also try Ane Brun (in particular, youtube “the treehouse song”). Norwegian, very hard to describe, but very good.

Oh, and while you’re on youtube, Brandi Carlile.(the version of “the story” live on Jools Holland) is most excellent. Phenomenal voice.

From the Neil Young/ Fleet Foxes side, try the Redlands Palomino Company, Jeffrey Foucault, William Elliott Whitmore or the Old Crow Medicine Show. All modern country/blues/folk/old-time music, ask well worth a listen in their own right

Stornoway, Bon Iver and Mumford & Sons are beret known but possibilities along that line as well.

Yup, same as aracer, scared witless off the Hebrides in a storm, that said I’m scared witless on a lot of rivers these days as well. Never bothered with a VHF license, never had to use it, but would take the rap if I had to and got caught out. Sea kayaking is awesome, though.

aracer – ah. So now I know who you are, been trying to work that out for a while! How’s it going?

(Sorry, I’ll stop hijacking the thread now…)

“Touch base” makes me seeth. I’ll touch a base off your skull in a minute…

Ceylon or is it Sri Lanka?

Serendip.

A massive shout to anyone who turned up and have it a go, I reckon!

I was marshalling, firstly at the end of the first (Wainhope) loop, about 25 miles in, and even there the atrrition rate was high, the retirals from the first feed station onwards were even higher. We radioed every retiral back to control, Sara’s radio traffic was absolutely non-stop all day.

Comedy sight of the day was from my second MP, at the curved bridge at Lewisburn, the number of people pinging off the railings or sliding down with a foot in their fork arch to stop was brilliant! Given the circumstances, had it been me, I think I would have pulled out, serious respect to everyone who gave it a shot.

MS Excel. At least from 9-to-5 it does. After that, it’s fiesta* time!

*And I don’t mean the Ford car or the jazz mag

Tyreinflators.co.uk – Mosa inflator + 2 cartridges for about 7 quid plus postage, and cheap for boxes of cartridges.

You might get 70-odd virgins to have a pop at etc etc

Aye, but as Jo Caulfield put it, knowing my luck it wouldn’t be 70 pliable nubile virgins, it’d be 70 maiden aunts on their zimmer frames.

it also clearly demonstrates the limitations
of helmets – he still has a major head injury.

Preferable to being dead, imho.

Yes, he definitely did. Major, major head impact. Not good in any way shape or form.

Fair enough Harry. We worked with people dealing to commercial and industrial woodfuel boilers though and it was a farce at times. 3hr guy in question told a major commercial customer “it’s X-quid per trailer load”, when they’d asked for his rough pence-per-kWh…

Hmmm, the problem of buying by volume.

There’s one fallacy above that i’d have to comment on – “softwood rubbish”. Not really, chemically you get near-as-dammit the same energy output per unit mass in either type, for a standard moisture content. Hardwoods are just denser, generally, so greater output per m3. That said, if you’re taking the extremes, balsa is a hardwood…

And like you say, the standard ‘volume’ measure is also a bit cobblers, since logs don’t exactly tessalate perfectly (we have a woodfuel seller around here who seems to think the Hilux is an SI unit…) So your metre cubed load looks pretty variable. If it’s a metre cubed of freshly felled wet hardwood it’ll weigh a metaphorical tonne and burn like a not-very-burny-at-all thing. If it’s a metre cubed of seasoned softwood, you’ve a lower potential output in total, but at least it won’t burn like a fresh turd and gum up your flue.

Best bet is to look for someone who sells by the tonne at a guaranteed moisture content – 25-35% is the norm for stoves etc. Ignore anyone who tries to sell an “oven dry tonne”, it’s a mythical construct of 0% MC, which is practically impossible to achieve and maintain. Kiln-dried also isn’t really worth the premium, you can air dry timber to 25% easily enough without extra energy input.

(Sorry, rant over. Used to consult on these things…)

Use the For Goodness Shakes, either premix or powder, regularly. Or failing that, Mars Refuel from the garage. Find they do help with muscle soreness, but so does just rehydrating properly.

It’s even better when you’ve got a hairdryer on a lead, no stooping necessary. I dry my beard that way.

Solo – lots of individual cubicles, but essentially a unisex changing area. Open showers etc but no separate men’s/women’s areas, just a while load of cubicles.

Not kidding at all!

Wasn’t Center Parcs, might have been Wet ‘n Wild in the north east…

I’ve been somewhere that had a walk-in full body dryer. Not very powerful, but interesting in a “i had to pay a quid for this?!” kind of way.

Had to keep shorts on, though, it was another changing village type place.

Even if I use a dyson blade?

Probably better than using one of them Tornado driers. There’d be scrotum all over the place…

I would blow-dry my bits, were the changing rooms at my local sports centre not a new-age unisex ‘changing village’. Think the teenage girlies might be offended. Or just point and laugh…

And I’m a genuine bloke. Got the willy to prove it and everything.

If you’re seeing blokes in the buff clutching their choppers, I’d be worried…

Sorry, just read the original post again, Cheltenham it appears. Try emailing REC HQ – past conversations bring to mind the name Linda working there – and ask for details of your local instructors.

Yeah, the office is in Glasgow but they have trainers all over the place. Where are you based?

As Matt says, REC would be a good choice. The REC instructors have the leeway to tailor courses to the skillsets people need, a lot more so than St. Johns etc (don’t get me started on them, either…)

I’ve done the REC 1-day EFAW, 3-day FAW (as a member of a water safety and rescue team) and their extra day Mountain and Aquatic bolt-ons and would highly recommend all of them.

Pacific Outdoors airbed-style mats seem popular, I’ve just bought the Ether Compact mat but not had a chance to use it yet. The Sleeping Bag Shop did have some rather good discounts on them as well.

I like the pic, personally. You could have panned further right to follow ‘rule of thirds’ principles (i.e. have it two thirds beach, one third building) but it the skyline further right wasn’t that interesting, that wouldn’t be any better.

The almost sepia sky tone is nice, saturation is good. Yup, I quite like it. Other people might not.