Guardian short stories podcast.
Naked scientists.
R4 Saturday play – a bit his and miss
BBC radio documentary archive – lots and lots of documentaries. Quite varied, sometimes very good. Huge archive available.
The joy of 6 – weekly best bits of 6music. hit and miss but moves along quickly.
The Infinite monkey cage
Reith lectures

No. The only major difference is that you cannot use Powerlinks to take chain on and off for cleaning.

I usually just reply, removing the cc’d folk that don’t matter.

That.
Boss will likely get annoyed with being cc’d all the time and/or just trash email without reading.

what you’re currently doing is fine.

I don’t think that a slow 5km will be off much benefit as you’ve already got a slow 12-15km.
That said, don’t feel the need to do every 5km flat out.

Only other thing that I’d consider is to get someone who really knows about running to check your technique and posture. Esp if you start picking up niggling injuries.

Out of curiosity, did anyone actually order the Hawaii Kona capsules at £1 each? 😯
If so, were they any good?

Never, really got on with the ordering model of the limited editions: due to the crazy delivery charges, it only makes sense to do bulk orders. If i order a limited edition and like it, it will have always disappeared before I need to put another order in.

Waitrose are selling Coffee Pod capsules. They’re about the same price as the Nespresso pods and individually wrapped to waste even more packaging!
The taste of them is underwhelming.

Had a mildly similar situation here. Had lots of trouble adjusting to the restrictions of having a family and lack of time, which got me rather down.
Weekend mtb trips are now definitely a thing of the past for me, along with regular day long mtb outings with friends. Now I just get out locally for a couple of hours when i can. For a period i was struggling to get out at all and ended up feeling worse and worse. After really assessing the situation (including visiting the doctor), we decided that me getting out at least once or twice a week (even for just an our or two) was very important. We now view it as therapy 🙂
I found the time riding was important as it was some exercise and (perhaps more importantly) a period of time for just me, no one else around to think about.

Maybe this will also be applicable to you. Either way, hope it helps.

Oh and I’ve just dug out my SAD light for winter. Find that useful on days when i just dont get out in the sun. Could be worth looking in to or trialling, esp if you’re an outdoors type person.

As above, Sonos isn’t cheap but it is very good. Esp if other people in the house are not technically minded.

Spesh Fortress are pretty good.

All good advice above.

I tend to spend too long thinking/worrying about things, which brings me down quite badly.

To try and fix this, I’m currently reading/implementing The Happiness Trap by Russ Harris. It’s based on ACT. Seems to help so far. It’s focused on methods of coexisting with bad thoughts rather than spending loads of energy trying to expel them. So when you have thoughts that you often worry about, you can emotionally detach from them and only spend energy on them if its useful. The book explains it a lot better than me!

Hope it helps.

Itv 4 stick loads of cycling Hugh Porter on the tv and all folk on here can do is complain.

FTFY

I cannot watch it. Hugh Porter is just too dreadful.

+1 He just doesn’t understand it at all.
Rob “erm” Hayles clearly knows what he’s going on about and would be decent if he managed to stop saying “erm” every other word.

Overall, it makes you appreciate how well the TDF and Vuelta coverage is put together.

The drugs conviction doesn’t make that much difference to the book. It’s about a guy who wants to tell you how f’ing awesome he is and how he beat cancer. The latter bit is interesting and a good read.

He’s summed up way before the drugs thing by one of the books other threads: my wife is awesome … could never have coped without her … the way she stood by me was incredible … she is fantastic …<book ends> oh look, there’s Sheryl Crowe, see ya!

a weekly “What tyres for…” segment

my 2 yr old likes garage band and some of the paint apps. (Yes, we do plenty of proper painting as well)

BTW, if you jailbreak the iPad you can get an app that will disable the buttons and app switching gestures, so that your child doesn’t get annoyed when they accidently close/switch apps. (I haven’t done this myself, so you’ll need to Google the details.)

at least it’ll make a change from the usual mass synchronised dance and a shed load of fire works.
The Olympic ceremony is instrinsically dull but at least this one looks different.

I’d put a 719 on the back of a HT.
As much as I like 717s, I found that they weren’t quite tough enough. Although it did take me 3 years and a few trips to the alps to untrue them enough to warrant a stronger rim.
FWIW, 11st rider on a full suss and pretty smooth (not one for big jumps!)

did it some years ago. Not particulary cheap but very well organised.
I was especially impressed with the volume and quality of food on offer.
If you dont know the route, aren’t comfortable riding it unsupported and need to take two days, it’s a great option.
Most of the other riders are very friendly and you always pick up some gate opening partners/groups, which is very handy.

As heavily road tested by Mrs Tim during pregnancy, Becks Blue is the best non alcoholic beer. Tescos do a remarkably good non alcoholic sparkling white wine. After that, Fentimans and BottleGreen go some nice carbonated drinks. The Schleur stuff is ok as well. Just keep an eye on the amount of sugar in some of those bottles.

summer – Rocket Ron
winter – Mud X

JBL On Tour. Compact, mains and battery powered. Decent sound quality given the size of the unit.

depends on the amount of time, money and interest you have.
We (well, mostly my wife) got some decent paper, used Word to knock up the words, then used some ink stamps/pads and ribbon to decorate by hand. All recipient names were hand written.

They ended up looking rather good and everyone liked the clearly handmade look rather than the chuck a lot of money at it approach.

But then, each to their own. It’s your day so just do whatever makes you happy.

I often need to stop worrying about not falling asleep. Audio books and podcasts (e.g. The Naked Scientist) are very good for this.
Also the obvious, cut down caffine and booze.

depends on the size of wood etc.
I really like the Fiskars splitting axe.

But to split a section of tree trunk (i.e. large round), i’ve found the most effective way to be using a chainsaw to cut/mark a cross in the middle (about 1-2cm deep) then use a log genade and sledge hammer. Once split into quarters, use the splitting axe.

Wilfred. Original, very different and laugh out loud funny.

And if you’re a fan of old B movies, then Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place is excellent.

Thanks to all for the FreeView HD resolution query.

slight hijack…
I’m tempted to upgrade my FreeView PVR now that HD channels are available in my area. Does anyone know the quality/resolution of the FreeView HD content? (I’ve Googled this but not found any answers.)

Dont get your hopes up too much, it really isn’t that good. The book is much better, although that was hardly a classic.

I’d take them back but I don’t have the reciept.

Take them back. They’ve got an excellent returns policy that’ll probably totally negate this thread.

Wear a pair of Jones boots at work. They’ve lasted about 5 years now and still look good. On their second set of soles and about their fifth heels.
Also have a pair of Next boots for commuting in most days, esp if the weather is rubbish. Change into the nice shoes at work.

As others have said, just look after them and they’ll last a long time. Use decent polish/protector and shoe stretchers when not wearing them, obviously.

…Is dumbfounded people dont bed in their pads…… wonders if that has anything to do with the people who go through pads like its going out of fasion…..

+1

organic.
not sintered as they are liable to overheat and cause brake fade on long down hills.

and another vote for Synology Diskstation.

Kirroughtree red/black is awesome. The black isn’t that hard*, it rides like a red but rated black due to the total red/black length.

*Only actual hard bit is the McMoab section, which is optional.

I concur with all the other advice above.

Looking into stream my media but am skint so don’t want to pay for any apps to do it till I’ve throughly investigated them

If you’re looking at streaming/downloading video from a DLNA NAS or similar, then I can recommend GoodPlayer. NB: I’m only currently using this on iPhone, but it’s also designed for iPad.
Haven’t tried/needed it for audio (as I’ve got Spotify) but I think that it can do that ok.

if you buy her a bike that’s too big for her, she wont like riding anyway!
456s have quite a long top tube, so she’ll likely feel stretched out on the bigger size, esp as it doesn’t sound like you’re going for a WSD one.

shed shackle

This is the best thread for ages.

A couple of glaring ommisions from my previous post:
Trentemoller – The Last Resort
Sven Vath – An Accident in Paradise

And a correction:
The Drum Club – Everything is Now (came out about the same time as Orbital’s Green & Brown albums. IMHO, better than both)

Not sure where to draw the line on what constitutes an electronic album. But seeing as we’re heading in this direction and that it does contain a substantial amount of electronic music:
Coldcut – Journeys By DJ (possibly the best album of any genre, ever)

And if you liked that, then list to this (almost as good):
DJ Food – Now Listen (and Now Listen, Again)

And best electronic single:
LSG – Hearts

The Drum Club – Drum Club
Global Comminucation – 76:14(?)
Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works 85-92
Banco De Gaia – Maya
Nathan Fake – Drowning In A Sea Of Love
The Orb – Adventures Beyond The Ultra World
Orbital – Green Album (mainly for Impact, Lush & Halcyon)
FSOL – Cascade (ok not an album but it’s a 30mins+ single)
The Orb – The Blue room (again not an album, but a 40mins single is close enough!)
Hybrid – Wide Angle
Chicane – Far From The Maddening Crowds
Venetian Snares – Rossz Csillag Alatt Született
**** Buttons- Tarot Sport
The Prodigy – Experience
Leftfield – Leftism
Goldie – Timeless

Well, that’s the first review I’ve ever posted on Amazon.
Dave, sorry for dragging your average score down with a miserly 4 stars!