Nice that Sargeant got a new job so quickly ;)

Did it for a year in my early 40s.  There was a small group of late learners who naturally gravitated together, if you’re the only one then you might integrate with the regular undergrads a bit more than we did. One big difference was that all the oldies turned up to all the lectures and actually paid attention rather than chatting or sleeping etc  I was also able to really immerse myself in the assignments and did a load of wider research beyond the basic papers that we were pointed at, and that translated into decent grades.

Sure they’re not Lewis brakes with Shimano badges on?

Ryanair officially allow 39jg for a bike

Hamfisted typing –  officially 30kg for a bike on Ryanair

https://help.ryanair.com/hc/en-gb/articles/12888834233489-What-sports-equipment-can-I-bring-on-board

it’s always been under 32kg

FWIW in their usual bid to be as awkward as possible Ryanair officially allow 39jg for a bike though once I was surprised by the weight of my bike bag at check in and the Ryanair bod said it was fine as long as it was under 32kg.  Though of course you might be unlucky and get the jobsworth at check-in.

You only climb past the signs you have a matching wristband for.

That does leave the question of who is allowed to climb up to put the signs there in the first place?

Ah but think of the overtime!

anyway, the Richter scale of measuring earthquakes seems like a pita.

Each decimal point on the scale represents a 10x difference in magnitude.

wtf? Are there any other units of measurement, designed to confuse peole?

How much louder is 20 decibels than 10? And why don’t we ever deal in whole bels?

So much attention to detail on the frame, then they don’t bother to line up the rear tyre logo with the rim??

Freehubs – choose either MicroSpline or xD, don’t care which and then make 9, 10 and 11 speed groupsets that fit as well.

Oh and headsets – one type (no more integrated, semi integrated etc) and WITHOUT cables routing through them.

needs a smart meter, which we don’t have

Any particular reason? Getting one would open up a host of other tarrifs that could be cheaper for your usage.

A lot of it will be welcomed by your local bike charity

I’m in the middle of a clear out and contacted the local bike charity – they’ve hardly got any space to put stuff so will only take really good condition tyres etc. So more hassle to sort through it all a second time and decide what they might want

AIUI Revolut still aren’t a fully licensed UK bank, so some normal banking features and protections may not be in place. But we’ve been using it for travel for years with no issues – it was one of the first to offer a more flexible approach to foreign currency spending but I think plenty of others have caught up since.

Edit – banking license update

https://www.revolut.com/news/revolut_receives_uk_banking_licence/

If I was in charge of a secret government agency going around sinking super yachts(*) I’d try to do it in water that’s a bit harder to get to so my dirty deeds were harder to uncover.

* – which I’m not, obviously! (**)

** – though that’s exactly what I would say if I was, isn’t it….

When I’m carrying but not wearing glasses, I tuck one arm down the neck of my tee-shirt.

Likewise. (I am not a contortionist)

My money is on a gentle remark about a new bathroom or kitchen within a couple of days. Perhaps respond to that by raising the prospect of a new patio to replace the decking.

Traffic light creepers. The ones who stop at the red light queue long enough for me to pull up behind them and for my stop/start to kill the engine. Then they decide they’d like to be a foot closer to the car in front so they move forward, my car spots them moving off so starts the engine again. Then they decide another couple of inches of progress are necessary. And again.

Then when the lights change they’re suddenly in no hurry to go anywhere so leave a massive gap to the car in front, enough for the road sensor to decide it’s time to switch back to red. And repeat…

On Zwift i didnt use the races, training plans, group rides, challenges etc

Same here – just wanted a way to control the smart trainer to vary resistance and MyWhoosh didn’t play nicely with the kit or my laptop so I ended up with TrainerDay

https://app.trainerday.com

No fancy graphics but no need for anything more than your phone. The free option is limited to 20 preset workouts but you can chop and change between them and vary the intensity, so with a bit of fiddling you can put together whatever you want, and compared to Zwift it has been ridiculously quick to get started pedalling. The paid option isn’t that much either and payment can be stopped and started as needed.

Looks like they’ve dressed you to the right too :)

To clarify you talk about a peak evening rate. If that’s higher what is it?

No I was referring to peak evening usage when most cooking etc happens, there are only two rates.

For my postcode

Octoous Flexible (standard variable rate)

Standing charge 61.27p

Electricity 22.49p/kwh

IOG

Standing charge 61.27p

Cheap rate 7p/kwh

Standard rate 23.71p/kwh

So zero penalty in the standing charge, and a 1.22p/kwh levy on daytime usage – though your charge window may also cover peak evening usage..

toaster declared itself no longer capable of toasting

No toast?

What about muffins, teacakes, buns, baps, baguettes or bagels, croissants, crumpets, pancakes, potato cakes  hot-cross buns or flapjacks.

Jen is the leader of the new team of 4 – and you’re now the old team and surplus to requirements!

So the new starters are Famine Death Pestilence and War?

TBH I was in the office so infrequently that pretty much everyone looked like a new starter to me. Even Jen.

See that view…….

Well you might be able to see it if it weren’t for that near dead tree in the way. Still, think of all the bugs and beasties it’s home too.

Make up a story about how your great grandfather used it to tunnel his way out of the Russian tundra or something then…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08l581p

My very simple idea was to utilise PV production during the day , and use electricity overnight when most cars are parked up at home

Sounds like Intelligent Octoous Go which is an EV specific tarrif coupled with their Octopus Outgoing tarrif. On IOG it’s 7p/kwh minimum import rate (applies to car charging and all other consumption) and their standard outgoing tarrif pays 15p/kwh. So even allowing for inverter/battery losses it probably still pays to export solar during tha day and then charge car/house at night.

https://octopus.energy/smart/intelligent-octopus-go/

Not read it, but did they mention any findings about the Pope’s religion or what bears get up to in the woods?

What became of platforms like Mastodon and Threads? Both were touted as the new Twitter when Musky started mucking around with it, but I guess they didn’t gain the critical mass to take on Twitter?

By installing them you’ve ascribed to a worldview where you feel you need them because the world is filled with potential threats

So where do you draw the line? No cameras, no insurance, no locks on doors (or for bikes), no police, no laws or judiciary, no armed forces…. In the ideal world we don’t need any of this.

Cool, you can get EVs for about a grand now then

Fair point – clumsy wording on my part. Argument still stands for some, but not all used ICEs.

 So you have to be able to afford a house with off-road parking before you can benefit from cheap EV motoring.

As mentioned above, used EVs are at comparable prices to used ICE cars and worst case public charging is about the same cost as petrol. So in that regard, if you can afford to run an ICE then an EV is affordable. (acknowledging that access to public charging is patchy so not necessarily equivalent to access to petrol/diesely)

IMO the whole “EVs are cheap to run” narrative was a bit of a mis step if you want to get mass adoption because it relies on having access to a private charger and also relies on HM Treasury not levying some other tax to recoup the income they’re losing from tax and duty on fuel.

I didn’t want CCTV at home, but then we got burgled and lost items of sentimental value, with no hope of recovery (even if the police had time and resources to investigate). We now have CCTV as part deterrent, part reassurance. Since then our house CCTV has been used to support the conviction of a murderer, along with footage from other properties.

I didn’t want a camera on the bike but then I got side swiped by car turning right into junction where I was turning left, stayed upright despite my handlebars bouncing down the side of the car, but realised that without witnesses I had no recourse. Several years later I nearly got mown down by a van failing to stop at a roundabout I was on, again I was alert enough to try to get out of the way and bounced off the side. My camera footage led to the prosecution of the driver.

Yes these incidents are rare, but if either happens again I want to feel that there’s at least some chance of identifying the offenders.

I mean, where is all the, well, power to power them all going to come from?

It took about 30 seconds on Google to find this from the National Grid.

https://www.nationalgrid.com/stories/journey-to-net-zero-stories/can-grid-cope-extra-demand-electric-cars

The figure you’re after is your FTP – functional threshold power – which is supposedly the maximum power you can sustain for an hour but is usually extrapolated from a 20 minute test. It’s usually expressed in watts per kilo – bigger people can usually put out more power so that normalises the figures a bit.  According to my Garmin figures above 3ish are “good” so that’s about 225 watts for you. Could you sustain that for an hour?

But remember FTP doesn’t in any way measure how much you enjoyed riding your bike.

Suggest you get copies of the operators Web page linking to the wrong reviews – maybe screen recording rather than saving HTML files. It’s an easy thing for them to change and get plausible deniability.

Probably more choice of compatible components if you go 1×11 than 1×12 – any 11s cassette will fit an HG freehub (though Sunrace FTW) , a 104 BCD NW chain ring mounted on the middle tabs of your current cranks (might need shorter bolts), 11s chain and mech and shifter (slx is the sweet spot IMO).  Certainly worth having access to a mech hanger alignment tool as well.

Another +1 for the Brand X external post (ascend 2?) to save drilling your frame.

I did it a couple of years ago with a VAG car – finance option gave a discount and servicing package so was too good to ignore. I phoned VAG finance about 2 days after I got the car and paid it off. Kept the benefits, no hassle, no comebacks.

Looking from the outside, what a load of cocking about.

Not an EV owner but AIUI in England it’s pretty much the same as using a regular pay at pump – just present your payment card and it kicks into action. As for connectors, again it’s no more of an issue than choosing diesel, unleaded or super unleaded – you know what you need and make sure the machine you’re using has that available before you start filling up. The faff seems arise from poorly sited or poorly maintained infrastructure and the CPS stuff above is an attempt to unify a load of legacy infrastructure to make it simpler to use but they’ve inherited a lot of the issues of the legacy infrastructure.

I’d wager that EV charging in England is less complex than parking in a town centre – to do that you need to download the right parking app, set up an account, register your car, find the parking location, book your parking time and enter payment details. Huge faff the first time you encounter a new system, less faff thereafter.

Those of you that have retired. Is there anything you’d do differently?

I dithered far too long between realising I was in a position to retire and actually doing it. I hung on at work to do a proper handover to my successor and to support a critical project that wanted my expertise – basically being the nice guy and not burning bridges.  With hindsight I could’ve gone at least 18 months earlier and nothing would really have changed.