I just didn’t feel like I wanted one

I’m like that with Trek bikes – no reason why, but I’m just not interested.

For the next bike my head says carbon but I really like the idea of a Burls ti…

Aldi is great for slurping wine – their montepulciano and white burgundies are amazing for about a fiver a go.

For a real treat I often go for Chateau Musar – about £15 a bottle. It’s Lebanese but grown from the Bordeaux grapes, from a Bordeaux-educated winemaker. He’s been bombed, shot at and survived droughts but still gets amazing wine out each year.

Thanks for these. Didn’t realise that I could burn sufferfest onto dvds.

I might try dvd burning with the Tour of Flanders/ Paris Roubaix too (thank god for Eurosport).

Otherwise, I may be too technologically retarded/ skinflinty to participate!

Edit: Also, power intervals do seem to be a bit of a holy grail – especially as I seem to have developed a bit of a muscular imbalance as a result of a previous crash.

Ask people if there’s anything they want before it goes to charity shop/ auction house. It can be a really long few weeks trawling charity shops to try to find the one thing you really didn’t want to lose 🙁

I’ve been on a few steamy, sulphury ones but haven’t seen lava yet. Will do one day though.

Stilltortoise – sounds amazing. With Marge Wilson?

Crikey. Am I in a minority of 1?

Suits me – hopefully it’ll be nice and quiet again next time!

We went out of school holidays (kids are a bit younger than most on here). The nearly-4-year old still talks about it and plays on the website most days. He loved it and that’s why it’s great.

What’s their target age?

We went to Legoland Windsor in September. We’re going again next week. It’s bloody brilliant. Though it’s expensive I’d highly recommend the Legoland hotel too. We were explorers first time and will be pirates next week.

We’re also going to the National Space Museum on the drive home to Yorkshire.

Can’t comment on Billund but don’t feel the need to go there for our Lego fix.

Depends on where you are and what you’ve done before.

If you’re in a university, looking to spin out technology linked to your research, you might stand a chance. If you’re a man in a shed, less so.

Ten years next month since my mum went. Still think of her every day.

Yep, but if they carry a massive range they’re more able to provide an objective view of weight parameters and comparative fit across brands and price ranges than individuals.

I could tell you loads about lightweight adidas shoes and nowt about Brooks, for example.

This is a specific query about the weight-bearing characteristics of one brand of shoes.

before anyone posts ‘see a specialist shop’ i am looking to get proper help/advice on this

Erm, I think the point about seeing a specialist is to give you proper help/ advice rather than the limited experience of internet nobodies 😉

Give these guys a ring – their shop in Bradford was ace but they’re now web only: http://www.sportsshoes.com/contact/

My wife’s granddad died 2 weeks ago.

He was in the first wave on D-Day and evacuated a few days later with shrapnel wounds.

He went on to a long career with the police.

His claim to fame is/was being Lincolnshire’s oldest driver on a speed awareness course at the age of 93. “only 38 in a 30”!

RIP Tom

I’d suggest coming over and spending a couple of weeks with the business, then report back on ‘future opportunities’ and buy yourself some credibility.

Then cash in this credibility by writing a business case for where you see yourself fitting into the business and what benefits it would bring.

Depends on the organisation.

If you’re CEO of a small business doing that, you’re responsible for much more than the income stream and will be paid 100% more than if you’re a middle manager in a bigger company and your performance measures are the ones you quoted.

Need more information!

I planned ahead: i broke my scaphoid last week so I’m getting the train to work.

andybanks – Member
Really – you’re starting a new company and put the naming/branding out to a public forum?

Best of luck with that. Nice strategic move there.

Not heard of crowdsourcing? Of course, it helps if the crowd you source isn’t primarily made up of idiots 😉

Most

Cos people are our most important resource

Have you/ gf talked to her about it?

When you did, was it like a conversation between mum and daughter or between two grown-ups?

Montepulciano.

About £4.50 from Aldi and a completely ridiculous bargain.

If you want to continually improve, you shouldn’t just do more. As the chef said, your body is brilliant at adapting to stress. The result is that given a set type of stress, the body plateaus. You then need a new stress.

Continual increases don’t give the body the chance to adapt. You need a gradual increase to benefit from the adaptation. Then assess and add a new stress when you’re ready.

Daniels summed it up much better: http://www.coacheseducation.com/endur/jack-daniels-june-00.htm

The new stresses can be more distance, more frequency, more speed (intervals), more tempo, more hills, etc etc, depending on which of the body’s systems you’re trying to train.

All Star Lanes bowling is 5 min from Russell Sq and is ace if you like 50s Americana stuff. The malted milkshakes are amazing. You’ll need to book though.

You like one distillery in the Highlands and a few of the more accessible Island/ Islay malts.

I’d suggest trying more from different regions without spending a fortune. Miniatures are the way forward! My local scotch shop is starting to decant big bottles into little bottles and is doing a miniature from each of the regions with tasting notes as a beginners tasting kit. 6 for £30 I think and you get to try the main 6 styles of traditional scotch.

Alternatively, my recommendation would be Highland Park – a little bit of smoke and lots of heathery stuff. I can’t stand Laphroaig, personally.

I grew up in Castleton.

Peak is easy for kids, much less claustrophobic but not that spectacular.

Speedwell has the novelty factor of the boat but doesn’t have great rock formations.

Blue John and Treak Cliff have the most amazing formations but both are deep and narrow. Treak Cliff is better for stalactites and stalagmites and Blue John is better for, wait for it, Blue John.

Personally, Blue John was always my favourite.

scaled – Member
O brother where art thou

Yes!

And Intolerable Cruelty (“You fascinate me”)
Nurse Betty
Zero Effect
Grosse Pointe Blank
The Day After Tomorrow (really!)
Lake Placid

edit: And Independence Day, of course.

I climb very occasionally. I always know what I want to do but can’t always work out how to do it and my weight pulls me away from where I want to be.

It takes me a few goes to work out how to plan where my weight needs to be to make a particular move but, once there, it seems easy.

My brother is awesome at this – he seems to glide up the rock. He’s brilliant at planning his way up a route.

Great idea!

Dark Peak Fell Runners are always crocked and in need of whatever therapy might be available! http://www.dpfr.org.uk/

No doubt the CEO will see the writing on the wall and will exiting the business soon. Stick with it and they will move on.

Disagree entirely.

People are often promoted to just above their level of capability, then get stuck. The worst ones know they’re crap and spend all their time digging themselves in as they have too much to lose to leave of their own accord.

That’s why, when there are rounds of voluntary redundancy, the good people often leave and the bad ones stay put.

Don’t expect anyone to voluntarily give up a well-paid position when they’re not good enough to get anything similar elsewhere.

There’s loads of unofficial parking on the roads round the Arena – fiver to a man with some unused land and you car’s looked after too (though you might be boxed in!)

edlong – Member

All good points.

It’s a horrible situation.

I was a trustee for a charity where the CEO went a bit mad. It started with some bullying of one of the staff and escalated from there to reclusiveness, evasiveness, aggression, lying and all sorts of stuff.

The CEO was ok as far as the Board was concerned – we had concerns over ability but were unaware of the mad stuff.

Eventually one of the staff collared the Chair informally and told her what was going on. The Chair said that in order to manage it properly and transparently, a grievance needed to be made.

Some of the staff got together and submitted a grievance as a group. This meant that the Board was duty-bound to investigate. We informed the CEO, then went round the charity taking witness statements from the employees. I led the grievance hearing which took into account the witness statements and the grievance.

We then brought the CEO in and invited her to respond to the grievance. She responded by submitting a grievance against the Chair for bullying her. Then it got nasty.

The employees’ grievance was upheld and we gave the CEO 3 months to improve based on a set of agreed criteria. The CEO was able to demonstrate some improvement and is clinging onto her job, though many of the Board are now looking forways to get rid. The grievance against the Chair was not upheld.

Working conditions have improved for the employees, though they don’t have any confidence in the CEO.

In all, it’s really hard to get rid of people from charities. The Board may be desperate to get rid, but will need your help.

Edit: This cost over £14k in legal advice too.

I also believe that there are many pro-Europe but not pro-status quo Europeans

Well put. +1

I had this a few years ago. Applied for a job in Newcastle and was doing some charity work in Devon.

I explained in my covering letter. When they called to offer me an interview they booked me a return plane ticket from Southampton to Newcastle.

I got the job – it was a <£25k job but they thought it was worth the £150ish to get the people they wanted to the interview. Job was a bloody nightmare and I left a year later…

Sounds great!

My cousin and his dad used to go here and loved it: http://www.clublasanta.co.uk/

You shouldn’t get lost but, if in doubt, follow Tom and Tom.

“There’s drifting snow on the top. You do not want to be in the lead at that point.”

This was genius.

(Wish he’d warned us about that bog though. Thigh-deep on the descent brought an instant standstill and I took a face-full)

Edit: Got the name wrong yesterday too – Stanbury Splash, but the route was changed to visit the Stoop instead because of the ice.

I think of myself as a medium. I’m in the middle of the Endura size chart for medium. I have a medium Endura Convert. It fits perfectly.

You signed up for a race, on roads, in the north of England, in January. You presumably read the t&cs beforehand.

As above, many of the costs had already been incurred, getting marshalls, first aid, drink stations etc to the right places would have been a nightmare. Grit the whole course? You may need to add ‘snow shovel’ to the race kit list.

All that effort to then have someone fall over and sue? No thanks.

Most of the people who had travelled for it seemed to come and run the Stoop fell race from Haworth anyway. There were over 330 of us racing!

“A flawless appearance can bring inner peace and a sense of security.”

Must be true: a Swiss bank said it.
http://www.thefinanser.co.uk/files/ubs-dress-code.pdf

Be positive, honest and indispensable.

This.

You need a to build a good relationship with him. There might be lots wrong but you’ll be perceived as a whinger if you go in with all of the above. What’s good about the place? What works well?

There are 2 issues: safety and comfort.

For safety, if it’s a FRA race, you need to carry at least the FRA minimum kit. That means full waterproof body cover, including hat and gloves. If it’s not a FRA race, it’s a good idea to carry it anyway. Break your ankle in the snow and you’ll be hypothermic in minutes.

For comfort, I usually just wear a couple of layers in the snow. Lower body, I have some Helly merino boxers and normal running tights. After river crossings your feet will be so cold they hurt, but they should warm up again after a few minutes with the wetsuit effect!

I’m in here somewhere: http://www.photos-dsb.co.uk/als092/index.html. It must have been cold: even Brownlee wore a t shirt!

tonyd – Member
Have you ridden the same climb under the same conditions on each bike within a day or two of each other?

Good point. Some objective testing required.