We also went to a place to see pine martens in the wild.

R_3_9026-2 by Tim Russon[/url], on Flickr

R_3_9098 by Tim Russon[/url], on Flickr

2 day trip to Scotland with my dad to see crested tits.

R_3_7574 by Tim Russon[/url], on Flickr

R_3_7593 by Tim Russon[/url], on Flickr

R_3_7738 by Tim Russon[/url], on Flickr

Now that is all cleared up…

Looks like Hunt is going to announce some very significant changes in lifetime and annual allowances tomorrow. It seems that the likely levels are set exactly so as to remove virtually all doctors from the threat of extra taxes, so should go a long way towards helping retain consultants a little bit longer.

The NHS has long relied on significant goodwill from its staff to function – I’ve been married to a doctor for over 20 years and the extra unpaid work she and her colleagues do every single day is insane. To pay all taxes correctly via PAYE, not hiding behind dividends or shell companies etc and then be hit with extra massive surprise and totally unpredictable tax bills at the end of every year is/was very demoralising and was rapidly eroding that desperately needed goodwill.

Hopefully these new allowances will let them continue to be doctors for longer.

For those the lifetime allowance direct benefit pension calculation affects, I learnt something very useful from our financial advisor the other day – you may already know this but I didn’t:

The 20x + lump sum depends entirely on how you are going to take the pension, ie, taking the maximum lump sum in exchange for a reduced pension changes the calculation result – I had assumed the calculation was done on the ‘standard’ pension however you chose to actually take it.

Also, taking the 2015 pension (NHS pension) early at 60 (so the same as the 1995 pension) not only changes the LA calculation, but also may actually give you more money overall despite the reduced payout, as you get that pension for 7 years longer.

You can normally disable keyless entry, as we have with my wife’s iD3 (although I’m not sure if this actually prevents the bandits entirely).

There are a huge number of Range Rovers and Land Rovers round us, with lots of theft reports. They are all starting to sprout old school steering wheel locks.

It is so ridiculously frustrating – I’d like a new car, but everything I’d want would be a risk so I stick with my 8 year old car instead. Total scum.

@hopefiendboy

Stem seems good so far – not noticeable really, in a good way. I was worried about bobbing or diving under braking.

You are welcome to come and have a look / try if you are near Sheffield.

Got mine just before Christmas for the Dirty Reiver, Topstone Carbon 3. Coming from a very stiff carbon CX bike (but using the same 43mm Gravelking tyres), I am very impressed. It is noticeably better / nicer / easier to ride off-road and feels quick.

I have changed the stem to a Redshift suspension stem that seems to perfectly match the compliant feel of the rear end – should be ideal now for long-distance plodding.

Very glad I got the 2x GRX version rather than SRAM 1x, but the WTB wheels are rather portly so I changed them to some 1400 gram, Vel carbon wheels.

Well, I’ve bought a bike, so that’s a start.

Pedal Cover still seems reasonable for us, albeit at a higher premium than mentioned, but that is for house and contents on a fair-sized house and a number of bikes.

My one claim with them was handled Ok too.

Thanks @binners, I’ll have a go at changing themes.

I’d imagine you might well be right about it being a bit of a blunt tool – it’s designed for ease of use rather than maximum flexibility. There are things I would like to alter for sure but not worked out how to yet, but for a tech incompetent like me I am pretty pleased with it.

Thanks both of you.

I do prefer a simple look, and like my images to be as clean and uncluttered as possible.

I *think* you can swap themes after your website is done just with a couple of clicks to see if anything else looks better, but I haven’t been brave enough to try it yet.

I finally got around to using the Portfolio section of my Adobe subscription and made this website of my wildlife photos.

I’d strongly recommend it to those of you who use Adobe; it was very simple to do and is free. You can even pull images directly from Lightroom into it, but I manually uploaded mine.

My Adobe Portfolio

@zilog6128, to answer my own question – it was very easy to do; really pretty intuitive and sooo much easier than my previous website. Capacity seems excellent, I haven’t seen any mention of storage limits and you can make up to 5 websites per account.

This is what I created over Christmas for my wildlife photos:

My Portfolio

I’m sure there is room for improvement, but for something so easy (and effectively free) I am very pleased.

Any suggestions welcome.

Along the tops down to Crich is pretty flat once out of Sheffield.

East to Cleethorpes is 130km, train back.

Heading east for a loop is a bit of a pain as you say. The first and last 25km are a bit grim, not leaving much good riding.

I didn’t have a power meter back then, but Strava estimates 4w/kg for my 34 minutes, which sounds about right for me at 70kg.

I couldn’t do 5w/kg for 34 minutes.

That is bonkers. He is clearly taking it nice and easy in the wind down to Christmas.

34.06 is my best, average heart rate 174bpm, but that was back when I was 42. Don’t think I’d get near it now.

I don’t think I’d fancy following him down it either.

The red spotted bluetail (small bird) is a poor clue.

For ornithological accuracy is should be all brown and perhaps singing very nicely.

The small bird below the pub sign is a Red-Spotted Bluethroat.

This is of no help as the answer they are after is a very different bird. Bit weird.

@dovebiker do you really mean lesser spotted woodpecker? If so, please can I come to your house next time I’m on Mull – I’ve never seen one. I didn’t think they were that far north?

Still hoping for a good waxwing year, last one in Sheffield was 2019.

IMGL2358 by Tim Russon[/url], on Flickr

Wahoo are going to release a new accessory to go with the Scotland course.

The Kickr Drizl.

Just top it up with water and it will spray a lovely cooling mist over you as your ride.

That shows Trumpian levels of self delusion, thinking that just by saying it only happened on the last corner makes it true.

How on earth did they expect to get away with that?

Even without referring to videos, I could tell you that it was way before the last corner.

Given that Red Bull is essentially a marketing company, they seem to be failing spectacularly at managing the ‘publicity’.

Not so subtle dig at Red Bull (and FIA) there by Ferrari.

Very impressive.

I’m sure him and his chums know more than me, but it struck me that his bike didn’t look overly suitable for going up hill – very short stem and relatively long fork.

Worked for him though!

There are some great paint jobs available these days, but one reason higher end bikes are sometimes only available in black is because it’s lighter.

Multiple colours, flip paint and high gloss can add well over 100 grams to a frame. Whilst this isn’t much in the scheme of things, it’s a big percentage of a 750 gram frame.

The answer used to be Franklin’s in Greysrones, but these guys in Rotherham took over that business and have been recommended by Rab themselves before.

http://www.elitecleaningandaftercare.co.uk/

Awesome. Like a cross between an RS200 and an Alfa.

My best man’s mum bought us some espresso cups for our wedding as he was going to buy us an espresso machine. He didn’t buy the espresso machine.

20 years later I bought a coffee machine and used the espresso cups for the first time.

Pigeon breast is nice, had that a few times in decent restaurants.

Maybe quite a lot of hassle for a small amount of meat, but as we rapidly revert to a subsistence culture, you might be on to something.

Might try cats first though.

Not mountain biked there, but road ridden a lot from Maspalomas and I doubt you’d be disappointed as long as you like hills. Plenty to go at for a week.

I have seen some mtb trails that criss-cross some of the road climbs, and they look good too as far as I could see. Possible a long old schlep on an mtb to get to the top of them though – the people we saw were all on electric mountain bikes.

Lord of the Loops

They aren’t doing that though are they.

In its simplest form, they are buying at £80 now and selling them at £160, so the percentage margin stays exactly the same but gross margin goes up, hence more profit.

Just had a quick read up about Rwanda on Wikepedia – sounds alright better than the UK right now. If Grant pays for the plane I think I’d take him up on the offer

Weirdos, I really like the look of the EV6!

Might well be my next car but I will need to check if two bike boxes plus luggage will fit in the back, as it does with my A6 estate – any thought @maloney19710776?

My wife has an iD3.

It’s fine – not much to get excited about, but not too much wrong with it either, it’s ideal for what we use it for which is commuting and local journeys. It has only been charged away from home once I think in a year, and that was just to see how to do it.

I don’t recognise a couple of the issues mentioned above; I’m 6’1″ and there is plenty of room, the seat is no where near as far back as it will go and there is loads of head room, and I have never noticed the switch from regenerative to normal braking, seems completely smooth to me. Maybe different software generation?

I’d rather have more buttons and less use of touchscreens, but pretty much every modern car review I’ve read says this (not just EVs). Sound system is crap, but some versions do have more / better speakers. The crash detection thing is funny – about 3 seconds after it thinks you nearly hit something, stuff lights up in red on the dash – it certainly isn’t going to prevent a crash, so must just be telling you off. We’ve not really had any issues with lane detection etc, you can feel it kick in at times, but not enough to bother switching it off, and I’d rather it was turned on for when my wife drives home after 24 hours at work.

RRP cost is high for what it is, but so are a lot of EVs, it is insanely cheap on the lease.

It isn’t exciting or joyful to drive, you aren’t going to get up at 5am on a summer’s morning to go for a spin around the countryside, but it will get you from A-B quietly, cheaply and in reasonable comfort.

Kryton57
Free Member
£15.72 for a day/week/month?

Month.

Blimey, that’s good going. We are with Bulb, just two of us in the house and our gas was £25 for June – showers and hot water for washing pans.

Never owned a saloon – does rather beg the question as to why you bought it tpbiker….?

My pet electric car peeve – will someone please make a large electric estate car. I don’t want a slopey rear reverse tardis SUV or a small hatchback.

Estate Model S or electric A6 estate would do nicely thanks.

Small amount of grated parmesan.

Toasted pine nuts.

No, sorry, I don’t think that played any part in Vingo’s thought process, I was just suggesting that it was an unintended consequence.

Also sensible perhaps not to risk it all on a tricky descent and temporarily halt the battle.

Nice gesture, but also cunning psychologically – Vingo would not have been able to stay away to the finish, and it now makes it much harder for Pog to stick the knife in perhaps.

Jeez, imagine the tan lines they’d leave.