A lot of voices "for" from participants, so I expect to get flamed…

.. but do 5/6 years olds really grasp the responsibilty side of martial arts?? I appreciate that they will get training in respect and how to behave responsibility, but on the evidence of my kids school, the local karate club members and local school bullies / scrotes are one and the same.

Sorry, but on my limited experience, that age group don't get responsibility, they just understand intimidation

I'd think very carefully about a CG125 and Haldon Hill….

I did the CBT, then separate DAS route a few years ago. At 6'3'' and 15 stone I looked a complete fool on the 125, and struggled to keep up with the class on ordinary 60mph A roads.

For 11 years my time was divided between work / weekday home in Exeter and folks / Gf's folks / in-laws in SE Cornwall, so have driven that strecth of A38 more than most roads. As you will well know, Haldon Hill is a steep, bendy dual carriageway and suffers a mix of very slow traffic and impatient tossers – and is a constant accident blackspot. Winter weather can be attrocious.

Can't imagine a CG125 would get up with a big rider without a few downshifts. At normal commuting times I would have thought you would be slow and vulnerable on a very busy bendy road with poor visibility and lots of fast traffic…

Just my thoughts… but maybee a test ride to see how the bike performs on Haldon?

When I was a kid we used to watch the Ark Royal's Buccaneers and Phantoms – ear shatteringly loud

A relative who used to fly with Bomber Command always said that this was a lovely aircraft to fly.

… but suffered terrible losses

Concorde and Mosquito – have seen both in the past. Tragic that the BAe mossie crashed (for the crew obviously, but also for the loss of the aircraft)

Quite a few of the types mentioned have airworthy examples – be nice to see some of the "extinct" or museum bound example restored to flying condition (and was, I guess, the OP's direction)

Hawker Typhoon / Tempest. There are so many Merlin engined aircraft around, it would be nice to hear a Napier Sabre (not that I ever have… and from what I've read might not be so good to have a pilot put at risk with one)

Some of the German WW2 aircraft, again for their distinctive sound. Bf109, FW190D…

Another oddball, the very quick, but totally extinct, Westland Whirlwind

I bought a Netgear router a few months ago and had similar signal strength problems. Half the time neighbours routers were giving higher signal strength…

A bit of googling revealed a very split set of review feedback 50:50, with 50% thinking it a great router, 50% thinking it unusable. In an "inspired" moment I decided to read the manual – and that recommended changing the defalut wireless channel setting if there were other routers nearby causing interference. Changed channel and the thing has worked fine ever since.

RTFM 😉

Many, many, many…

Some that always get the emotions running include:

Red Hill Mining Town – U2. Best, but often overlooked, track on a very well known album.

And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda – version by The Pogues on Rum, Sodomy and the Lash.

Oh, and..

The Welsh National Anthem – and I'm English. First time I heard it live at the old Cardiff Arms Park made all the hairs on the back of my neck stand up! And we've got God Save the Queen FFS!

Er, No – God Save the Queen is the BRITISH National Anthem. As far as I know there is no English national anthem…

although Mae Hen Wlad Fy Naddau is certainly stirring stuff

Well Iran signed up to the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty.

So if they are weaponising uranium then they are breaking international law. Simple as that.

Thats about the size of it…

After we (and the Yanks and Ruskis)had finished doing lots of things in Top, Top, Top Secret at Aldermaston, Christmas Island and the Australian outback, it was only natural that we didn't want everyone else to do the same – so we made it illegal under international law…

Oh, and did anyone ever find out how the Israelis got nukes – surely the vicious rumours of begged, borrowed or stolen from the US must be libelous???

this has been done for years and years in one form or another…

Yep – Mine's called an RC305 😀

If you really want a bouncy back end, they do that version too!

I do however feel happier / safer riding trail centre stuff on my own than out in the wilds as your as good as guaranteed someone will pass you if you have mechanical or accident and stop and help.

Skyline, solo on a stormy January -very wild and remote….

No trail centres when I started, either. CyB was the first I rode, and I instantly loved the old Karrimor. CyB is now very different – the trails have a very different feel to them and just don't feel as rewarding to ride… hence rarely make the effort to go.

Penhydd is the original and best trail in S Wales. My personal fave of all the trail, centre trails – and that is a lot to do with the natural feel of it.

I'm only about 30 mins drive from Afan / Glyncorrwg, but rarely bother to go over there except with the kids. Too much good riding from the door and on my commute to work. Costs too much in fuel and time when you can ride from home.

allthepies – Member
>Who charges his batteries up for his camera?

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/alone-in-the-wild/articles/the-faqs-how-the-programme-was-made

Thanks for posting the link. I thought the area looked very familiar – it's about 20 miles from where I spent 6 weeks living under canvas in 1986.

It's a hard, but wildly beautiful, land. The bear thing is funny: a kind of schizophrenic duality between wanting to avoid them like the plague, but desperatly wanting to see them. The mossies are worse – there is no way to avoid them below the tree line. Above the tree line and it's ok.

I can understand why he has been getting as emotional as he has. We had a few knocks. Out of our team of twelve, one guy fell down a waterfall and broke a bone (ankle?), with no way to medivac. Managed to get a doc out to him, but we stayed in our location for 4 weeks until he was mobile enough to walk out. Nearly ran out of food and also got snowed in during that time. Radio reception rarely allowed us to get a comms link.

The big difference was – we were a team, and the emotional resilience that we needed came from the mutual support of other team members.

I want to go back

Like I said – different song…..

the bit of my brain that likes lateral thinking took the OPs question / chorus' question and applied it to a song where I wonder….

Different song, but same question.

As I've always been captivated by redheads….

…. I've often wondered who the "ginger lady" is / was????

Somtimes I wake up in the morning
The gingerlady by my bed
Covered in a cloak of silence
I hear you talking in my head

Is there an advantage to using pace?

British based, designed for UK coditions, good service….

IGMC

A prize knob…I loved wathcing him **** up his classic at that rally.

I watched the Mille Miglia programme. Frankly he came across as a pretty unlikeable person in that – especially the way he treated his co-driver, who was actually rather nice….. and is a racing driver to boot!

S-Max. perfect mtb car. 5 bikes & riders last w/e

Spent 6 weeks up there camping in 1986. You live with it in respect of the grizzlies – the mossies on the other hand are something else…

Post punk… but influenced..

The Jam
Joy Division
Husker Du

ernie_lynch – agreed in terms of popular recognition. I think what has been meant above was the official recognition – memorial, campaign medal etc… probably less meaningful than the recognition of society in general though…

One of my more distant relatives was a bomber pilot during the war. He would never talk about personnel or operations etc, but as young boy interested in aircraft, he was more than happy to talk about the planes themselves. He was regarded by local people as having done his bit and suffered the mental and physical health effects that went with it – everyone accepted that what he was involved with was needed, and was effectively payback for German bombing of the UK..

it's quite shameful our country has never given them the full recognition due.

Well that's complete and utter nonsense – innit ?

My father was with Bomber Command during WW2 (Lancaster nav.) never once do I recall him expressing the view that aircrews didn't receive 'the full recognition due'.

.

Possibly GB's earliest stab at political correctness..

And your comment, is a classic example of completely baseless drivel………..so loved by those who scream : political correctness gone mad, the nanny state, prisoners are kept in five-star hotels, ……blah blah bollox, blah blah bollox, etc etc

Sadly not, out of the western forces (Soviets lost so many and cared so little about losses) Bomber Command suffered similar losses to the Kriegsmarine's U Boats – about 1 in 4 survived.

Peacetime reflection on the morality of the area bombing campaign and Sir Arthur Harris' abrasive personality are believed to have denied Bomber Command personnel the official recognition for their contribution to the war effort. I think this might have been corrected in the last decade or so. The same applies to the Merchant Marine – there is now a memorial to merchant seamen in Cardiff Bay

As a British citizen who has lived in a number of parts of England in the last 30 years, I find the level of feeling about this sort of thing a bit peculiar. I don't really understand what sort of "connection" anyone expects to feel

What you find peculiar is dependent on what you are familiar with. I am familiar with living in places with a strong geographical / cultural attachment, and find a lack of any understanding or identity with a place as peculiar.

The first time I encountered this sort of ambivalence to "place" was when I went to college in England. I found it to be a defining attribute of the English – and remember as a fresher having a conversation with a lad from Berkshire who just could not comprehend why myself and some Welsh and Scottish students had any feelings of identity to where we had come from.

What those Cornish patriots who offered to burn down Rick Stein's restaurant, for example, have going through their heads really just puzzles me.

The desperation of the disenfranchised – I suspect.

In my own 40 odd years Padstow has changed from a small but touristy fishing town, to a vision of Chelsea transported to the North Cornish coast. Rick Stein's original restaurant brought a lot of (largely welcome) attention and trade to Padstow – but now his branding is on everything – delis, fish and chip shops, you name it…

Despite all of the upmarket tourism, and a housing market driven to prices well beyond the affordability of most local people – Cornwall is on of the most impoverished areas of the UK. It is one of the few areas of the UK that still qualifies for EU objective 1 funding. Kids growing up in Cornwall have a choice between minimum wage jobs serving the rich (often seasonal) or leaving to get better paid jobs. I accept that these economic conditions are prevalent in many "desirable" areas, but become a volatile mix when the local population has a strong geographical cultutal identity.

Perhaps the problem would go away if we did not have that identity – personally, I feel that I would be losing something of myself…

"Scottish first, British Second"

That's very sensible, and is the outlook of many people where I come from – Cornish first, English / British second.

Outright nationalism might be infantile, but having a strong sense of identity and belonging is not. I currently live in Wales and have a very strong affinity with their outlook.

The ignorance / indifference of many English does come across as perceived or actual arrogance.

In terms of identification with Britishness – it is often claimed to be a vestige of Empire – The British Empire. To me it is clear – the individual Nations make up the State. The armed services are the most recognisable institutions of Britishness – after all, it's the British Army…

The most confusion come from the fact that the British Government sits in Westminster and also administers England. FWIW I don't support a separate English assembly – but that's a different debate.

Yes – The Ford S-Max is great. Don't know what s/hand values are down to though.

We got ours at less than 12 months old. Handles 2 adults, 2 kids, dog and camping gear. 7 seat arrangement when the grandparents are up. Looks good and is pretty good to drive.

Even with the 1.8 TDCi engine it goes far better than you'd expect, and handles better than any similar / large vehicles that I have driven. Even with 4 bikes on the roof it returns better than 45mpg.

Having the same problem here. Looking to book for New Year, but proces seem to have gone up 50-100% this year.

My take on it is that the marketeers are trying to sell as many early bookings as possible at over inflated prices as they expect to have to dramatically "discount" later on. The £ / € changes shouldn't have made the huge differances that are apparent in the brochure / online prices…

Haven't noticed any difference since I switched from petrol to diesel.

My current diesel does pretty much the same mpg / performance irrespective of fuel.

My previous petrol engined car – Golf GTi mk V – returned better mpg, performance and drove smoother on V Power / BP Ultimate. The mpg difference actually made it more economic to pay the premium over supermarket fuel.

FWIW I have done a lot of work for a UK refinery and they are very secretive about the formulation of the many different additives used in their fuel blends…

What on earth are 'blaeberries'?!

blaeberries, whortleberries, whimberries – regional names for the small native blueberries found in th UK

… and no, we don't wash any of the wild fruit that we pick and eat – blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, whortleberries etc..

I think it is a leftover of the Bush administration and what it represented.

I always liked the Queen / George Bush joke that was doing the rounds a few years back….

palpetations and complete anxiety

I've always thought that was the coffee habit.

being off with Stress is the companies issue

Until you try to get a job elsewhere…

Religion

That's why they were sent there to start with

Agreed about doing a different test category…

The car test should be to the same standard as the motorcycle test – in fact, if all car drivers had to pass a CBT on 2 wheels they would be far more aware of other road users.

A mandatory re-test at regular intervals would also be very, very good – a far more effective road safety measure than all of these so called "safety cameras" that actually do very little / nothing about the standard of driving. Not necessarily take away a driving licence if you fail you re-test – but maybe submit drivers to a training programme if they fail their re-test.

competancy based interview = PC approach now that everyone is too scared / unable to ask about experience…

On a more practical note, this would be very nice

.. but typically expensive in a germanic manner…

Tried a couple of these a few summers ago – sounded lovely, and cheaper than most good mtbs…

Completely un-original – but it just has to be this one…

… then reinforced by Tamburini's next

Looks a lot like the Honda DN-01 (i think that's what it's called).

Fugly.

Agreed

Don't know about a year… I lived in Exeter between 91 and 2002, and SE Cornwall before that.

There are some very good all day trails, especially around the margins of the moor, but access onto the moorland has always been very restricted.

I don't know whether the restrictions stem from the National Park Authority (seems unlikely as doesn't compare with other NPs…), the Dartmoor commoners or the "absentee" landlord 👿

Ti does bring out a certain lustfullness…

Can't see that Ti is a fad though. I have a 6 yr old Ti hardtail. It still looks great – the unpainted Ti is easy to clean and doesn't corrode like steel or suffer from low fatigue life like alu.

It's young enough to be a "modern" mtb design, ie new components still fit, although the frame geometry is a very stretched out XC race style.

In the years that I've owned I've also has a Marin FS, Giant Reign and Pace 305 – but more often than not it's the Ti hardtail that's the bike of choice. It's a bit more balanced at the mo – almost 50:50 with the Pace, but during the years I ran the Ti with a FS I'd normally do 2, 3 or even 4 times the mileage on Ti bike.

I thought Pegasus crossing was a bridge on the River Orne…

No, they're not the same thing at all.

… of course they aren't –

but they claim to be trying to solve the same "problem"???

assuming clubbers comment was aimed at BioPace chainrings…

Or, alternatively, use Shimano BioPace chainrings

Sheldon says….

RLJers are narrow minded idiots with no understanding of the dangers they pose to others.

Agreed – makes me mad too..

And the self indulgent, I'll do what I like / has no impact on anyone else / mind your own business comments that are always wheeled out to justify the behaviour makes me even madder… Not because I’m a self righteous nob, but because they are the views of the utterly selfish and irresponsible.

RLJing is illegal and winds up other road users – I know I commute regularly, and am regularly subject to verbal abuse and worse from drivers…

The argument that it doesn’t impact anyone else is utter nonsense – as subjective and self-justifying as your decision to jump the light in the first place. Three recent incidents come to my mind:

1, similar to the post above, as a car driver, I was nearly involved in a crash at a junction where a cyclist jumped the lights and other traffic had to take avoiding action.

2, as a cyclist turning right through a TL junction, a loon on a bike jumping the lights forced me to take avoiding action – action that forced me to change my line into the path of a bus. For once the bus driver was paying attention and didn’t hit me…

and 3, as a pedestrian, I had to jump out of the way of an RLJ cyclist, whilst crossing the road. As a fit and agile mtber I could do that, but the middle / older aged woman who was also crossing at the same time had a very close shave.

To anyone with any common sense, what I have described above should present a pretty clear picture of selfish disregard for anyone but themselves.