:D

Can I be the first to suggest…

In a slightly different vein to some of the sporty numbers, but love it all the same.

In holiday mode in Pembrokeshire last year

If I had the funds / space I’d love a lightweight landy or a Mk1 GTI

I may be imagining it but wasn’t there an article in the mag a while back about a route in the Cambrians which was supposed to include one of the longest singletrack descents in England & Wales?

A couple of things to bear in mind:

You need to consider the finances carefully. The more desirable parts of the country from a lifestyle point of view tend to have a significant gap between pay (low) and property prices (high). Luckily we had a good, flexible mortgage which was portable and meant that we could reduce our monthly payments significantly – we shifted a load of our savings (and of course the equity in our old place) to reduce the capital on our mortgage and also extended the term by a couple of years – consequently we almost halved our monthly mortgage payments and ended up with a slightly bigger house. Without doing that we’d have struggled to make the move on one salary… a good IFA was worth his weight in gold for this…

If you want to make the move enough, you’ll find a way to make it happen but there are inevitably compromises involved. Good luck with it all.

Like. The Straggler looks good too… damn you Surly.

We moved from Kent to Dartmoor 2 years ago. We had no family links in Kent – had just ended up there due to work and had been looking for an opportunity to make the move West for some time as my wife grew up nearby and it’s where we spent most of our holidays and spare weekends. I was getting sick of the commute into London and we’d both realised that the South East was not where we wanted to bring up our son, who was 2 at the time.

A job came up here for me here around the same time that my wife’s company were offering redundancy. We put our house in Kent on the market and it sold within a couple of weeks. Made the move and haven’t looked back. We were lucky with how things fell into place I guess.

Despite halving our combined salary with the move, there is no way we’d consider going back. We love it here – it’s a huge playground for our son, we have stunning countryside on our doorstep and with both living and working locally we feel connected to the community in a way we never did in Kent where we barely knew our neighbours – in fact we already know more people locally after 2 years than we did in 9 years of living in our dormitory village in Kent.

We’ve had to budget a little , and in some ways I work as hard as I did previously (I do 2 jobs here) but have swapped a 90 minute commute for a 10 minute one (25 mins by bike). Consequently we spend much more time together as a family and have found we spend much less money here – it doesn’t cost anything to climb a tor or splash around in a river, and we’re only an hour from the south or north coast. I really wouldn’t want to live anywhere else now.

cloudnine – Member
Will this open up the wales coast path for official riding??

I grew up on Anglesey which is very poorly served by BWs but has some stunning natural coastal singletrack (apparently :wink:). Pembrokeshire is in a similar situation.

If coastal access is opened to bikes then quite apart from opening up additional hill routes it will also open up large parts of the country which are not seen as “mountain biking areas” to the sport… but obviously at the risk of conflict with walkers if not dealt with sensibly.

I’m also thinking of Gower – some good BWs there already, but the potential to link it up with the coast path could lead to some great routes.

Capt. Kronos – Member
I am a sewage engineer.

I think we have a winner…

bruneep – Member
Drac – Moderator
Nah too easy a job seavers. If you have time to pose for calendar whilst on duty then you’re not working
I make no apologies for being good looking and sitting about on my arse all day enjoying ice creams

You wholetime get all the glamour :wink: . I’m retained so get the chance to swap stuffy office for sweltering fire kit at random intervals. We were out at an RTC last Friday where I swear standing by the roadside in full PPE felt hotter than a building fire. Our boots melted into the tarmac!

I’d follow the Charlie the Bike Monger / SSUK approach and sum it up in a single line.

“Don’t be a Dick”

Another happy T4 driver here. ’95 Westfalia Pop-Top. Probably the comfiest vehicle I’ve owned. Nice to drive too. Only downside is that it’s a bit noisy over 70 on the motorway but I don’t do much motorway anyway.

Only thing I’d swap it for would be a later model T4 multivan or a T5.

With regard to AV, rather than get everyone to take responsibility for their own protection (a big risk IMO), I’d recommend having a look at Webroot Endpoint protection – ideal for what you have. It’s a cloud-based / SaaS AV package with a very small footprint. You have central management via the web and the machines protected don’t neccessarily need to be on the same domain or network. It also protects android devices

http://www.webroot.com/gb/en/business/products/endpoint/

We’re using it here across 50+ devices and have to say it works really well. Reasonably cheap and there is a free trial available – it runs happily alongside other AV too.

Edit – can also be used on Mac (and android using an add on), but not apparently on Chromebook yet.

You could perhaps try renaming the AD profile completely as well as updating the simple display name? Again you’d need to restart the Information Store service.

Other than that, I’m stumped too. I tested it here yesterday (Exchange 2003) and it worked fine.

Pretty sure the simple display name will be sufficient.

You don’t need to bounce the whole server just the IS service if that helps at all?

Ah understand now. You need to change the display name / account name in active directory.

Once you’ve done then as above you need to restart the information store for the change to take effect and for the relevant mailbox to be renamed.

Just tested on our system and worked OK.

Edit – you’ll know it’s worked when the Mailbox name listed in ESM matches the display name.

I’m really confused….really not sure what you’re trying to achieve.

I interpreted your OP as asking how you would send email from a variety of different mailboxes to appear as if it came from one central mailbox.

Eh? The above will do just that. The emails will have the sender address of whichever address is selected in the from field.

If John Smith sends from ‘Customer Services’ the email will appear in the recipients mailbox as from ‘Customer Services’.

Pretty simple – you set up an AD record for the mailbox you want people to send from.

You then give all your team full mailbox and “send as” rights to the relevant mailbox.

You then get them to add it as an additional mailbox in their Outlook profile.

You make the “From” field visible in their Outlook client – they can then send mail direct from that mailbox with it appearing to come from that address.

We do exactly the same here and it works pretty well

The above works for Exchange 2003 – not sure on later versions but would expect the principle to be the same.

We had 3 border collies when I was growing up in Wales.

My experience with them has been fantastic- the first came from a local farm and was my 8th birthday present and was probably my best friend growing up in a very remote rural area. He was affectionate, daft as a brush, and fiercely loyal. I still miss him.

A couple of years later we added a white BC bitch from another local farm. She was probably the most intelligent dog I’ve ever known – a proper character with real problem solving skills (she habitually waited for my mum to go bed before jumping up on the sofa and plumping up the cushions to make a cosy nest for herself, and would put them back where she found them if she heard my mum coming down the stairs – my mum was none the wiser for years!).

Last one came along a couple of years later as a stray we adopted after one of our neighbours found her cowering in the back of his truck after delivering to a hill farm in Snowdonia. She was probably a couple of years old and had clearly had a litter of pups already. She’d been badly mistreated and didn’t trust humans at all. She wasn’t houstrained and was horribly incontinent due to being so nervous around people. My dad took her in and fed her up and after about 6 months she was a completely different dog – she was a long haired tri-colour so a beautiful dog, incredibly placid and loving. She had a litter of lovely pups sired by our eldest dog which all went on to good homes locally.

They do need plenty of exercise but not as much as say a Springer. They love mental stimulation and problem solving and as already mentioned that’s probably equally important as exercise – hence why they’re used a lot for agility trials and the like. Ours were happy to be left for a few hours but there were three of them so they kept each other company – the eldest was a bit chewy when he was on his own and got himself in a few scrapes until the others came along.

Ours loved the water and would happily spend hours tearing along the beach / into the water after a tennis ball which my Dad used to hoof out with a raquet.

Only possible downside is that they are very much pack animals and can be fiercely protective of family members (I read somwewhere that genetically Border Collies are closer to wild dogs than other breeds…not sure how true that was?) – our eldest would bare his teeth and raise his hackles at anyone he thought was likely to harm us (raised hands etc) and had a big problem with authority figures – basically he’d go mental barking at anyone in a uniform – but he never went for anyone.

We also had to carefully train ours to behave around animals – as above their instinct is to round up anything that has 4 legs or wings. In fact our eldest in his younger dafter days would also try to herd motor vehicles until he came off the worst in a tussle with a mark III Cortina… he was fine afterwards apart from a bit of a limp which would be strategially deployed for sympathy / treats. Ours were all eventually fine after training and would happily walk to heel around sheep.

As a variation on Candodavid’s suggestion what about the Quantocks and Dartmoor? Day 1 Quantocks. Quick dash down the M5 afterwards camp overnight and take on the delights of Dartmoor on the second day.

Not that we haven’t got enough riding to keep you occupied here on Dartmoor but that way you get to experience a different area and also to break the journey.

That sounds like a plan. There are plenty of trails up there – we found the problem was linking them up as a lot of them were routes to old farmsteads and the like. We took loads of interesting little diversions off the main route on our trip all of which were worthwhile.

You could do a mini-tour of the Outer Hebrides in that sort of time.

I’d agree with that. We did a mix of road and offroad on a similar trip a few years back. We got the ferry to Lochboisdale. Rode up the west coast of South Uist – mainly on tracks through the machair and a fair bit on the beach itself. Had a bit of an explore of Loch Sgioport then on up through Benbecula and Grimsay to North Uist and got the ferry up to South Harris from Berneray. Rode the west coast route to Tarbert via Luskentyre and then back down the east coast on the Golden Road (stunning). We got the ferry back to Berneray and then caught a bus with our bikes down to Eriskay where we got the ferry over to Barra & Vatersay for a couple of days.

Whilst on Harris I attempted the first bit of the Rhenigdale loop on a loaded bike and am ashamed to say I had to abandon it. If you wanted to overnight it, it’s be best planned as a standalone ride with light bikepacking kit I should think.

Awesome trip from start to finish – would love to go back and explore some more.

As an aside, for a cheap and eco solution for camping refrigeration, google pot in pot or evaporative fridges. Couple of plant pots, some sand and you’re sorted. :D

http://www.treehugger.com/kitchen-design/mohammed-bah-abba-and-his-pot-in-pot.html

http://www.instructables.com/id/Cheap-Solar-Fridge/

sprocketjockey that sounds interesting as an option to the sensible rent one for a week and try it idea…

Only really worth doing the buyback if you’re going to keep it for a longer period of course.

With regard to depreciation I’m not sure on the larger motorhomes but our T4 Westfalia is valued at around 9.5K now – we bought it privately 5 years ago for 11K and have put on around 30,000 miles and spent probably over 100 nights in it since then.

Bear in mind that if you’re buying a camper now, particularly from a dealer, you’re likely to be paying top dollar as prices fluctuate through the year reaching a peak in the summer.

For what you want to do it may be worth looking at the guaranteed buyback schemes some dealers have – residuals on decent vans are such that a lot of them offer will offer to buy back at up to 70% of the purchase value even after up to 12 months use – far cheaper than hiring but still relatively risk free.

Windsor Castle fire was caused by a halogen light… in this case a spot left by a decorator caught some curtains alight:

Link to the ESC leaflet which we give out to the trade here with some advice which may be useful:

http://www.dsfire.gov.uk/YourSafety/documents/ESCDownlighterLeaflet-Trade.pdf

Both my bikes still have their headbadges but all other logos removed from the frame. Mind you they are both Surly who notwithstanding the quality of of their frames appear to design their decals to fall off in a stiff breeze.

For anyone wondering what the fuss is about…

Just set it to record. Genuinely one of the best photographers / photojournalists of his, and probably any generation.

His autobiography, Unreasonable Behaviour is well worth a read.

Definitely jackdaws.

I stand corrected, was thinking of the Crealy near Exeter. Wasn’t even aware of the one near Padstow. My bad. Sorry.

Creally adventure park is good for a laugh.

It’s 2 hours from Newquay though so probably best as a stopover unless you want a mutiny! :D

We use Microsoft DPM – long term backup to tape, short term to disk. Storage is split between on board disk storage on the dedicated backup server and a QNAP NAS connected via iSCSI.

The disk based backups work really well but the tapes are a bit of a headache if I’m honest. I’d ditch it in an instant if we had the bandwidth to support cloud based backups.

For small businesses something like Livedrive may be sufficient- 2tb of storage as standard etc.

For larger businesses Barracuda and the like may be an option.

You don’ve have to just sit on the beach. Surfing lessons is the obvious suggestion if your kids like the water but also check out other activities on the beach (kiting etc). This is just down the road and pretty well organised (Watergate Bay is worth a visit anyway), but there are loads of other places locally: http://www.watergatebay.co.uk/content/extremesports-kitesurf.htm

Also got family biking on the Camel Trail between Padstow and Wadebridge (and on to Bodmin if they are up to it). Bike hire at both ends if you’re not taking your own.

There’s the Blue Reef aquarium in Newquay itself and there are fishing trips available from the harbour if that’s your thing. There is also a zoo.

Few theme parks in the area – little one might like Dairyland but probably not much for your eldest.

Not been myself but the steam railway at Lappa Valley is also apparently well worth a visit.

I really liked Oslo when I visited but had the advantage of cracking weather in July. I can easily imagine the winters are pretty dire. It’s in a stunning location though and the area around the waterside is lovely for a wander and bite to eat (but pricy).

Boat trip out to the fjord is worth doing and I really liked the Viking Ship museum (Vikingskipshuset). There was a really excellent seafood restaurant which we went to nearby which I can’t for the life of me remember the name of.

Being in the burbs is not out of the question, just don’t know many areas and ideally would like to be able to get to local riding without always taking the car. I live in a small town where I can be on the bridle ways in circa 3 minutes, so I am very spoilt.

As above I wouldn’t discount Bristol itself without checking it out in detail – it is, in essence a lot of small villages and one of its big draws is ease of access to the countryside on a bike.

There are some stunning spots in the Mendips etc, but IME some of the more commutable villages are a little bland and soulless with no real life of their own – basically dormitories for Bath and Bristol.

It’s a pretty “green” city anyway and you’d arguably get more of a village feel in some of the inner suburbs than you would in the commuter belt with the advantage of not having to contend with the vagaries of traffic and public transport.

I’ve lived in loads of areas close to the city centre – Southville, Totterdown, Montpelier, Easton and Cotham. All had really good community spirit and good local pubs. For biking, it’s hard to beat Southville – nice area, close to dockside, easy access on the bike into town and out to Ashton Court, Avon Cycleway & Leigh Woods. Also not too bad (for Bristol!) for getting out in the car to M5/M4 for weekends away.

I live in a village on Dartmoor now, so understand the need to be out in the wilds, but all I’m saying is check it out for yourself.

Not ridden one myself but SE do a lot of really nice looking fixies and singlespeeds and have a pretty good heritage. Some good deals to be had at Triton at the moment if you can get one in your size – they have the SE Lager in 58cm for £275 at the moment:

http://www.tritoncycles.co.uk/m14b0s139p0/Road_Bikes/Track_Bikes

I’m sure it would be fine for light offroad – there are a few blogs and videos online of people doing mad stuff on them.

Just a thought though – what about converting your 29er to an XtraCycle? The benefits of a Big Dummy but you’d still have the option of breaking it down to a SWB version if you wanted to tackle anything a bit more challenging offroad.

http://www.practicalcycles.com/userimages/procart16.htm

Not sure about jeune… I did that A level in 1990!

Not officially legal but some properly wild country up that way so you’d be extremely unlikely to get hassled. Not overnighted up there myself but plan to do so later in the year and some friends of ours did so a couple of months back

I’d recommend looking up around the Grwyne Fechan valley. N of Hermitage Bridge. There is a dead end road leading part of the way up there from Llanbedr (pub!) and then two parallel bridleways running either side of the valley up towards Mynydd Lysiau. There’s loads of springs and streams about for water and a few sheepfolds and forestry areas for shelter.