I watched one of his early missions a few months back based on its positive reception here. It starts off with him having to break protocol and use a bridge to cross a river. He then does his usual think of clambering over hedges and avoiding cars. Pretty dull IMO and gave up after an hour or so. Really wanted to like it having attempted something similar with a mate years ago when drunk.

So sorry to hear this TJ. Thoughts and condolences to you and your friends and family.

biggest risk would be if you were to spill out partially burnt wood and ash onto your slabs. theres no risk from the heat coming out the bottom.

Yeah, can see that happening. Might look at creating/buying some kind of base to prevent that.

We’re in a similar boat as I’ve just finished laying a new patio and will soon be starting on some furniture. One option was to buy a table with an integrated gas firepit – looks the part but methinks it’s an expensive way to lose what little heat gets generated.

Sooo, those outback stoves look pretty cool. Trail_rat, have you used it on a patio, ie no risk of heat causing damage to slabs?

Re heat capture, we’ve been looking at sails but have yet to figure preferred dims and whether it’ll work. Not sure how much heat this might save and whether it’ll stain from any smoke?

No way were England going to even attempt going for the win. They had their arses handed to them in India and without Stokes and Buttler they’re 1) low of batting confidence, and 2) devoid of natural attacking talent.

Had the rain not appeared yesterday we’d probably be seeing a markedly different fifth day.

Splendid effort, even more so as you consider yourself out of shape. 100 miles and 9 hours in the saddle takes physical and mental effort full stop. Chapeau.

Tunnel 29, a BBC podcast about a series of attempted escapes across the Berlin Wall. 10 x 15 min episodes. Worth listening to them all.

EDIT: doh, they’re true FWIW

Reckon McT will nail the deciding pen.

Bringing on 2 penalty takers in the last minute is an insane gamble. Ole clearly doesn’t have faith in they or the rest of the bench to win the game beforehand.

One of the worst finals I’ve ever witnessed.

Rashford looks like he’s won a Shreddies competition to get on the pitch tonight.

The original Mistral page appears to exist no more :( Not sure if there’s a technical issue or maybe these were a quick sell and all gone? Bummer, as I was keen to get one. Not sure on those Sports Pursuits ones and the Cool Snow/Surf site looks proper dodgy.

Central Intelligence. I normally find Dwayne Johnson rather watchable but CI is easily one of the biggest piles of shite I’ve even seen. Avoid.

Wow, that’s an incredible show of strength you’re exhibiting. So sorry to hear this. My thoughts are with you and your friends and family.

Also, a lot of builders/landscapers are flat out and booked up for weeks/months. Some of those will no doubt hike their price up because they don’t ‘need’ the work.

We are still waiting on a few quotes to come back but a lot of them are saying the paving is where the cost is as its really expensive?

That’s absolute BS. Decent budget-end sandstone is circa £30/sqm. Higher end stuff is naturally more, as is porcelain, slate etc.

Type 1 sub base isn’t expensive, but you’ll need a lot of it, say 12-15 tonnes.

A lot of the cost is in the labour, especially if they’re going to rip out existing soil/rubbles/pavers/shite, skip it and then barrow in all that sub base etc.

£10k still expensive IMO.

We’re were in a similar boat last summer. Quotes for patio, fencing and pergolas were insane (we’re in Surrey so no surprise). I’m currently ripping out existing fencing and patio and doing the whole lot myself with some occasional help from a mate.

Anything that has a number plate containing either of these:

8IG

BO55

Which tends to apply only to Range Rovers and X5s.

So, is this going to be fifth(?) successive <200 innings from Eng?

66/6 What the Devil is going on?

20/20 mode might be even better.

Steady on old bean.

Stokes switching to ODI mode

FFS, next ball.

Jeepers, what are you playing at Johnnie? Got away with that one.

Holy moly, this is bonkers.

WTAF

PSA: the 42125 Ferrari 488 GTE is now £121 at John Lewis (and Amazon if you must, just remember to Smile). RRP £170.

I’ve ordered mine monkey jnr’s and will drop the suspension a la https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bgz_zE9LjE.

… i want it but we have the creator expert corner garage to build still

Yes, I like the look of Assembly Square (and I think the bookshop) but having them in isolation probably isn’t going to do it for me. Creating a town would be cool, or at least a street, but paying £180 for each of those then sourcing the older models for £300-400 each means spending upwards of £1000 for some fancy buildings just to start with. More likely going to need nearer £2000 to make it interesting. Hmm.

Not sure if I like that 911.

This OTOH I quite fancy building with monkey jnr https://www.lego.com/en-gb/product/medieval-blacksmith-21325

He’s starting on the Senna Mclaren later today as part of his “can’t do any half term activities so might as well invest in some things he can play with at home”.

And with that Stokes delivery keeping low, we’re now 2 wickets from victory!

How so? Going into the second innsings with a 250ish first innings lead they just want to score as quickly as possible to make the target as awkward for India as possible, while leaving themselves enough time to take another 10 wickets.

But England haven’t done that. I posted just after Stokes was caught and it was starting to look like we’d be bowled out with a realistic target for Indians to chase. Although we’ve steadied the ship somewhat, we’ve done so without any aggression and instead dawdled our way towards a 400 lead. England have done this many times before as we seem more inclined to avoid losing the game instead of trying to win in.

Although I stll favour England for the win – just – I can see India getting a draw and taking a pscychological lead into the second test where they surely won’t play as badly as they have here.

I reckon the Indians would have a go at 400 off 3.5 sessions. The pitch should favour us and I’d fancy us to get a wicket or 2 before COP this evening. But if they start tomorrow 65/0 then it’ll be a tasty final day.

England doing their very best to lose this.

+}+%. Healing vibes to Dave.

Probably D for me (more A than anything else in the last year, but more B and C the year before that).

Time ATAC user here since 2003-ish. No complaints whatsoever. First set lasted until 2016 I think. Since then I’ve run different ATACs on different bikes (road, MTB and gravel) but get on with them all.

The only weirdness I’ve experienced is a bit of play that I doesn’t seem to be coming from a pedal or a cleat or a shoe, so I really don’t know what’s causing it. No issue though.

Just watched it. Wish I hadn’t. Can see how Shane Meadows cut his This Is England teeth.

Those wobbly bars need fixing. Could have someone’s eye out.

Yep, full lockdown from Wed until end of Jan to start with IMO.

Thankfully our school has seen sense and closed its doors from tomorrow.

Kids have been wearing masks here in Bavaria

tbf it’s just England. Wales, Scotland and NI got all this sorted in various ways weeks ago and must also be looking on in disbelief as England is still pissing about with this.

Not that easy to implement given the stories I’ve heard from friends’ kids. Teachers not enforcing masks, older/cooler kids refusing to wear them, other kids opting not to wear them because the aforementioned kids take the pi55 out of them, and so on.

Monkey’s Primary Head emailed everyone this afternoon to say they’re continuing to follow regs and will open as normal on Tue with all pupils expected to attend.

As much as I’d like to see a semblance of normality continue, I’d be more pleased to see them close given the stats.

Been dry since May 2019. For something I never thought I’d be capable of doing for more than a week or two, it was surprisingly easy to initiate and maintain. I have no logic to share but am sure as hell it was one of the best decisions I’ve made.