Never been there when its been really muddy, bet it hell isnt it?

Worse

She should try mtb-wales.com if she's keen on doing more riding and meeting local outdsoorsy types… Weekly evening rides from Cardiff on Wednesdays

thought that looked an amazing price for what it was!
Seems the shelter itself is £129 and the side wall is £15! that was nearly a disastrous impulse buy

@rse 👿 Teach me to read better…

Apologies if any hares set running. Product details are for the overall shelter (dimensions, poles, weight etc, so very misleading…

Know nothing about gazebos – but don't want to take a garden barbecue acoutrment with me to Mayhem.

This looks interesting though

Coleman Event Shelter £15

Cymer Abbey, between Dolgellau and CyB is a nice little spot. Fails the pub test though

thought that the working class worked in trades and the middle classes worked in the professions. So working class folks served apprenticeships or had other vocational training, while the middle classes were educated at universities.

I'd see this as a consequence of class background, not an indicator. In the past the professions were the (almost) exclusive preserve of the middle classes because of the limited access to higher education required for the entry qualifications.

Today, a far greater percentage of young people get degree level academic qualification and can enter the professions – but it doesn't make them middle class.

In the same way, farmers, or other small local business owners are very much middle class – irrespective of any academic qualifications (often none). Many of the small businessmen I know have such "down to earth" attitudes (ie would make the BNP blush) that they would never be able to work as an employee for very long in most firms without getting fired….

BMI is utter bollox for anyone fit and active…

My weight has gone up from typically 14-14.5 st a year ago to 15-15.5 st now – in pretty much direct correlation to the amount of riding that I do. The more I exercise, the heavier I get.

Anyway, 216lbs, 98kg

Haven't cracked this particular problem yet – my wife has changed career to teaching, so it is an expensive problem.

We generally wait until Easter and get some fabulous late season spring skiing. Cervinia is good late season (can ski in Zermatt), but the two occasions we stayed in the resort it was as part of an all inclusive package – expensive, but good value.

This year we booked EJ, hire car and cheap "down the valley" accomodation. Skied Cervinia, Monte Rosa and Pila over 4 days. Worked well provided you didn't want apres ski beer before driving back to the hotel.

What's the link there? Tyres aren't looser in one direction.

Njee, you are very literal aren't you! Is it literal, not sure if that's the right word. No offence meant, but you do miss the point some times! Aspergic?

I've got to be honest – I don't see how it reads as anything other than literal…. If the tyre is easier to mount it can only be to do with the bead, surely??

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV,
And you think you're so clever and classless and free,
But you're still f***ing peasants as far as I can see

Quite an insightful chap was Mr Lennon!

Not a Lennon fan, but was listening to this on a compilation a few weeks ago, and it struck a chord… worth quoting in full:

As soon as your born they make you feel small,
By giving you no time instead of it all,
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all,
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.

They hurt you at home and they hit you at school,
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool,
Till you're so **** crazy you can't follow their rules,
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.

When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years,
Then they expect you to pick a career,
When you can't really function you're so full of fear,
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV,
And you think you're so clever and classless and free,
But you're still **** peasents as far as I can see,
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.

There's room at the top they are telling you still,
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,
If you want to be like the folks on the hill,
A working class hero is something to be.
A working class hero is something to be.

If you want to be a hero well just follow me,
If you want to be a hero well just follow me.

If you have to sell your labour then you are working class, if you
earn income from the the profit made from employing others or your investments or property then you are middle class.

Spot on.

Whether it matters or not depends in whether you believe in a meritocracy.

You can talk as posh as you like, but an entry in Debretts or Burkes is required if you want to be upper class…

tron, I agree Upper class could easily be added, but if you go to say pre-war demographics (when it was much clearer), the middle classes were defined by the property ownership – business men, farmers, merchants.

This is the class of the entreprenurial capitalist (ie have some assets and make them work for you) as well as the stay at home maiden aunt who never does a stroke of work, but lives comfortably in a nice property paid for by a previous generation.

Again, if you have to WORK to maintain what you have the you must be working class.

If you can give up work and retain ownership of your key assets (ie house) then you are middle class.

joolsburger – American and therefore totaly based on a monetised grading. Middle class and upper class can (and often are) cash poor, but asset rich

We are all middle class these days.

Most people in the UK are middle class – work in middle income, middling skill level jobs etc. However, they tend to identify themselves a working class.

NO. NO. NO.

This is so incorrect it makes me very angry.

I am one of those that could be described as "middle class" – professional job, reasonable income, responsibilities, nice house etc. But to describe me and all those other professional working class as middle class fundamentally misses the point of what middle class is.

If you are middle class you have (paid for) property assets – end of story.

Everything I/we have is dependent on earned income. We have to WORK to keep it all in place – therefore defining "working class". Stop work and the mortgage company asks for the keys back – one of the accute issues of our time.

The truly middle class can work hard to accumulate more wealth, or can kick back and take a lower paid, lower stress job and live in the cottage in the country that the family have owned for generations….

In a word…
.
.
Property

The Upper classes / aristocracy is about the only element that is "easy" to define and draw a boundary around. Inherited wealth, primarily land assets and being able to trace your "pedigree" back to when people started to read and write. All accomplished by some long dead Monarch ceding your predecessor land in return for some service or favour…

That explains the relaxed attitude then…
.
Now to sort out the hire car. Having to leave a child at the airport would be a massive fail.

Oh, and can anyone advise on cycle access in France?

Is it "Get Orf My Land" in a Franglais accent? Previous trips to Brittany suggested that the locals were pretty relaxed about seeing an mtb on what we Brits would call a "footpath"

In the Ambrose B0B book how Winters is described as (almost coldly) killing Germans is alittle disturbing in a way

An easy comment to make with the separation of almost 70 years…

I talked a lot to my surviving older relatives as I grew up. One would talk about "kit" that he used, but would never talk about what he had done or people lost / injured. He was a pilot on Stilings, Lancs and Mossies, totally coldly killing a lot of German civilians.

Another was on destroyers – his flotilla was tasked with rescuing survivors from the Hood out of 1300 odd crew, his boat picked up none, sister ship picked up three – that was it.

My Grandmothers two broters both died when HMS Glorious was sunk. My grandfathers two brothers both ended up on the Burma Railway. one died when his hospital ship was sunk by a US submarine. War is a bit shit, and those involved don't get asked to make choices.

Capitalism innit

one of the best things that's been on TV, ever

Agreed

reminds me of The Boat – long, dull periods of nothing, building up to clautorophobic and terrifying action. the bits where nothng really happened just added to the action when it did happen.

And again…

Detractors from the PS3 generation??

The Winters / Nixon double act is a good character play – and listening to Winters and the other survivors talk at the end of the mini series, well lets say that might just change your perspective.

None of the normal American gung ho glory shit.

Red Roses for Me; Rum, Sodomy & The Lash – The Pogues
101 Damnations – Carter
Doolittle – Pixies

+ many others

Wiggle and CRC ads follow me everywhere…..

INAPPROPRIATE Speed kills.

I'd disagree – bad decision making kills.

Drivers going too fast, driving beyond their vision / braking distance, not anticipating danger, are all making bad decisions. Most of the time they get away with it and believe themselves good drivers (and most of us would be included from time to time).

On the other hand, the ditherers give the impression of not knowing what a decision is, let alone the ability to make good ones. Whether this is reality or an unjust perception is irrelevant in terms of why they bother other road users – it's just too easy to conclude that they aren't up to it..

lol – I saw some terrible terrible driving in Italy. They also have significantly more deaths/person than we do. Only if you think there is something clever about being aggressive and macho would you think driving was better in Italy.

Ahhh, but I haven't said that they are better drivers…

FWIW, they scared the sh!t out of me – BUT the really striking contrast with the UK was how so many drivers here trundle around like drones, not paying attention, not concentrating, no spatial / situational awareness and basically not recognising any need for knowledge, skill and judgement.

To hell with forum etiquette – I'll quote myself frome the bad drivers thread…

I've always thought that the Italians are rather good.

Yes, they drive with a certain panache – but in general seem to pull it off. A mixture of nerve and skill?…..(and luck?)

On returning from one trip to Italy I concluded that in the UK we had all been bored / subdued into a skill free, attention free, ability free moron zone

This was from a few years ago, but I had already taken the view that years of nanny state mollycoddling, speed is bad, driving is reeeeaaaallly dangerous do-gooder propaganda had turned this country's drivers into a collective comatose state – driving along aware only of the car xm in front, whether bunched on the M-Way at 90 in fog or driving in town with multiple hazards and distractions

I've always thought that the Italians are rather good.

Yes, they drive with a certain panache – but in general seem to pull it off. A mixture of nerve and skill?…..(and luck?)

On returning from one trip to Italy I concluded that in the UK we had all been bored / subdued into a skill free, attention free, ability free moron zone

One local authority near me was suggesting making JK jam – never did see any in the supermarket though…

I've kept XP on the main desktop PC. Tempted to go for 7, but have a lot of older games that run well on XP – not sure that they would be any good if upgraded.

Does performance take a hit if it's not a clean install?

Who is photo 2?

I also thought Tommy Tank – never had the (spare) energy at an endurance event

Following that last picture this thread should now have NSFW in the title.

Nearly coughed my lunch over the keyboard

A little harsh on all Toris

First Welsh woman to summit Everest

Everything in Captain Pugwash

cant really afford the giuletta

That's what my wife keeps telling me 🙁

Nobody??

Or on another tack – any good flat screen 22-23" monitors that folks have been impressed with

Waste of money – you would hope…

Haven't tried a Mito – was tempted, but thinking of hanging on for a Giulietta now. Anyhow, if the Mito is anything as good as it is supposed to be you wont need a stereo. Last Alfa I had was a 156SW and the twin spark engine sounded so good that the stereo rarely got used 😀

Normally – loud music on the stereo = faster driving.
Alfa – stereo on = more passive driving

Any worn out knobbly

Cheap, fast, sustainable

from urban dictionary – emmet generally Cornish term

as opposed to…

grockle – more southern english