You use the Fungle to make it into a loop via Aboyne and Tarfside.

If you’re after a shorter day, then just go up and down whichever side you’re on (e.g. if you’re staying in Ballater or Aboyne, push up the north side and some back down the north too)

You’re not paying Employer’s NI. The umbrella is paying it from the total that they invoice the client.

Your gross pay in the example above is £403.58

EDIT: Umbrella companies are some of the worst organisations you will ever come across

Great news. If long disctance / overnight gravel biking is your thing:

Forres > Coastal Path to Spey Bay > Speyside Way to Grantown > Dava Way back to Forres

Another vote for buying from Cazoo.

I bought from them last year and am just considering buying another from them now.

You can also arrange collection from one of their depots (if there’s one close to you) for free rather than the £99 home delivery option if you wanted to actually see the car first

Took me a second to get what an “erotic rack” was

Got chatting to an interesting looking lady on a dating site a while back, she asked me to follow her on insta. Turned out she also had an ‘only fans’ site, and a little digging presented me with a pic of her in full latex adorned with a mind bogglingly huge strap on

What was her account? just asking for a friend…

If you tap the Instagram logo at the top left (on an iPhone at least), you can select “Following”… then you get a feed of only people you’re following instead of all of the ‘Suggested for you’/TikTok rubbish

If I could move anywhere in Aberdeenshire it would be out between Banchory and Braemar

You mean somewhere like Aboyne? (where I currently am). It’s a great wee town, some nice cafes, a decent CoOp, a pub and a couple of takeaways. Great access to all of the Deeside riding too, and only 50 mins drive to the centre of Aberdeen (or you could get the bus)

A slick gravel tyre?

Isn’t that a road bike?

I’ve just bought a 69 plate car from Cazoo.
Purchase was effortless. Car arrived on time in the back of one of their trucks. Car was exactly as described on the website (the high def photos were really good too).

Customer service has also been brilliant – the car has unfortunately broken down (it’s a manufacturer warranty issue, nothing to do with Cazoo) but they were great in helping to arrange a courtesy car, following up with the repairs at a main dealer, etc.

Even though my car is off the road for now, I’d definitely buy from Cazoo again.

At 12 years old, their lactate system won’t be fully developed – so there aren’t really HR zones as such.
He won’t be doing himself any damage from pushing himself per se but just make sure that there’s adequate rest/recovery periods between any exercise.

He’ll likely be hitting puberty soon (or is already going through it), so his body will be going through massive changes. Too much high intensity training can be harmful to the young person’s overall development, but a certain amount of impact helps stimulate bone density in youngsters.

The most important thing for me at that age is that he’s enjoying himself. If he’s smashing himself on a run, let him have some time veg-ing out of the sofa to recover too.

How much time have you got for reading?
Development of the Youth Athlete By Neil Armstrong

E-car driver living in rural Aberdeenshire. I’m actually getting some CrossClimates fitted tomorrow – they will stay on all year.
For my application, i’m prepared to accept a few miles less range for surefire handling and the ability to handle cold weather / snow.

The Golf GTD that I’ve just sold had CrossClimates on too. They were brilliant for everything from ‘spirited’ summer driving to calf deep snow.

Is it just me, or does his bike say “TURD” on the top tube?

I lost a swordfight with a 10yr old bridesmaid

I hope that’s not a euphemism

I thought VED was partially ringfenced for road maintenance in England a few years back or did that not come to anything?

Even if it was, what about all the Prius and Tesla drivers that pay VED at a rate of £0 / year?

@tjagain

Both big shiny 4x4s who would not put a wheel onto the flat grass to let us past.

Not a great idea recommending people do this. It damages the verges (which could be quite fragile machair) and cars can also get stuck/damaged if it’s soft.

I played rugby at uni.

We were training one Sunday morning, after a particularly heavy beer and curry night – so everyone was already pretty hungover.
As the forwards packed down against the scummaging machine, I stuck my arse into the tunnel and let rip. I think it actually made my eyes water as it was coming out, it was so spicy.
Cue the scrum to collapse, dry heaving everywhere and the hooker was actually sick… followed by me, the skinny fullback, legging it to safety across the pitch.

I love my Formula Cura 4. Brilliant brakes and tons of power – not quite as much modulation as my old Hope E4, but still good.

My only gripe is that the levers don’t adjust to come close enough to the bars for my liking. Interested to see if that new lever in the Pinkbike article is available as a retrofit.

Glenlivet is a fair way from Nairn and it’s not that good.
Moray Monster trails would definitely fit the bill though.

The 220-age thing for max HR is absolute bobbins.

@FOG
The track up Glen Ey peters out very quickly after Altanour Lodge. It just about exists until the junction of the Allt Beinn Iutharn (as shown on the OS 1:50k).
There’s nothing between there and Loch nan Eun – I’d imagine it would be exceptionally miserable trying to drag a bike through there (very pretty though)

Constant bearing, decreasing range (CBDR) – as it is called – is well known in nautical and aviation incidents.

You have to move your head around to make sure that there’s nothing hiding in your blind spots

What Range Rover? All I can see is a Bosch service centre.

My 5yr old daughter is really excited about it & we’ve got a couple of massive pizzas in to eat while watching it with a couple of beers.

I’m not sure 5 year olds should have beer

You could try tweeting @stravasupport they might get back to you there.

How did Strava get your payment details if you didn’t give them to them? (Free accounts are possible) That would have authorised them to take payment… so you may be reliant on goodwill to get your money back.

1998.
Although I probably need to go soon as my gums have started receding

As soon as the initial pain / swelling has subsided she needs to start doing some progressive loading exercises to repair and rebuild the muscle.
Extended RICE / massage will do nothing to aid the healing process.

Get to see a physio if you can.

where did i write DNS

Just before the list of riders that you wrote / pasted

@matt_outandabout

I remember camping up Glen Ey (around a ruin, possibly NO 088 862 )

You possibly mean Altanour Lodge at the end of Glen Ey? NO 082 823.
Very lovely spot and right at the 5 mile boredom-limit the OP suggested. You won’t see anyone there either.

@trail_rat

That part of deeside has major issues with over crowding. Usually worse than. Linn of Dee due to small volume of parking .

Also it being closer to Aberdeen with the city folks’ lack of imagination and inability to have a plan B / C / D…

It’s all rubbish… but I think the point about warm up/down skewing things could be correct.

Last night’s run was short hill intervals (all intervals at max effort / anaerobic, with a chest HR strap):
– 2km warmup
– 4×90 seconds
– 4×60 seconds
– 4×30 seconds
– 2km warmdown

According to my Garmin 945 that impacted “Base” fitness and my training of short on Anaerobic effort.

Very similar boat.
Daughter is 15, and stays with her mum (which is about a 30 min drive away).

I’ve mostly just accepted it as part of the process of growing up. (I didn’t want to hang out with my parents all the time when I was growing up, so wouldn’t expect her to)

We don’t have any set times when we see each other… some weekends she’ll come to stay with me, some weekends she’ll stay at her mum’s to hang out with her mates, other weekends she’ll do stuff with mates one day and stuff with me the other day.
When things are open again, we head out for dinner through the week.

Since splitting with her mum about 9 years ago, I always made it clear that she got to chose when she came to see me (and that I’d always want to see her if she wanted to see me)

Another thumbs up for them from me.

Bought an Intense frame from them a while ago. Service / delivery was ace and they were super helpful getting the frame replaced under warranty too.

How high is the highest part of the tour Mt Blanc route?

Col de la Seine, I think – circa 2,600m

unless you’re out in the wilds you’re rarely far from from others in the UK.

I can be a 10 minute run from the house and wouldn’t be found for many hours if something happened to me – so always take my phone with me, unless I’m just pounding the village streets. Everyone takes whatever precautions they feel necessary for themselves though.
As already mentioned – Garmins have incident detection and live tracking on them too; which links via your phone if they detect a crash/fall or can just show location on a map.

Also worth noting that wrist based HRM is nothing more than a guide (doesn’t matter which watch you’ve got). If you’re getting technical enough with your training that you’re working on heart rates / zones, then a chest strap is the only way to go.

I’m still none the wiser as to what your concern is…
But I’d be cautious about leaving the phone at home while you’re out biking/running – how will you call for help if you needed to?

Edit: and Garmin Pay currently only works with very few banks in the UK

It’s very simple; under-stated earnings, over stated expenses, deductions and allowances. Low taxable profits. Job done.

I’d imagine that you’re maybe looking at fraud cases then? In which case you use the existing law to prosecute and recover the correct tax.

Profits are taxed under the relevant corporation tax rate. Any dividends are then paid from the net profit, and then income taxes paid on the dividend by the individual. I assume your “20-30%” claim includes all of that?
The system allows 1 person Ltd companies. It’s a legal precedent that people can minimise their tax exposure (within the bounds of the law).
If you don’t like that, lobby your MP for a tax system that’s fairer for all.

FWIW, I support people paying their taxes to provide the public services that people expect and rely on.
I’m a Scottish higher rate tax payer, so pay more tax than an identical English counterpart. I’m happy with that.

Full discloseure: I formally operated as a 1 person Ltd co. It was the only way I could get work in my industry.
There’s one reason large companies use so many 1 person Ltd co’s – it’s cheaper for them than employing someone directly (regardless of what the individual takes home).
Hate the game not the player.

she can’t use a calculator because it got nicked when her house was BURGLED

If you bothered to actually read the article, you’d know the real reason she couldn’t use her calculator was all the keys had melted in the recent house fire

Some countries don’t allow you to have 2 passports (not sure if that extends to 2 nationalities too).

I remember the company I worked for a few years ago having to pay a significant sum of money in bribes for the release of a colleague in Nigeria. He’d entered the country on one passport and had tried to leave on another.

My 1991 Rover Coupe in British Racing Green.
The first car I bought with my own money when I started working.
It was only the 1.6 (my god that Honda engine could rev though) but it still had the power-bulge in the bonnet from the 2 litre.
I loved that car… had to sell it though as I was moving abroad.

They’re ace. I’ve got a few pairs of incredibly thin merino and silk liner gloves.
I’ve got Reynaulds and they turn a pair of gloves from “just about warm enough” to “my hands are toasty”.

They can also be worn on their own for slightly chilly days.

Do iphone batteries still shit the bed when it’s cold?

Pretty much any battery will do that.
That’s why it’s important (especially in winter) to keep whatever you’re using as your communication device somewhere warm.