What he (Milikie) said^^^ And to paraphrase Dog Borstal – you’ve got to be the most interesting thing in the park, whether it’s because you have a plastic bag full of chopped ham or a squeaky toy in your pocket.

After that, it’s all about perseverance. Every single walk. Our rescue lurcher now has better recall than pretty much any of the dogs in the local country park, purely down to months of (admittedly slightly boring) repetition. And lurchers have the reputation of being one of the hardest breeds to teach recall to….

Was thinking about a slight tangent of this just yesterday. My Grandad is 98 and has spent the last four years of his life in a care home. Before he went into care, he was quite ‘with it’ – he had plenty stories to tell, had the odd visitor and enjoyed the occasional shamble round his massive garden. Sure, his short term memory was pretty shot and he had all the day to day problems you’d expect someone that age to have, but he still enjoyed a reasonable quality of life, mainly thanks to my Dad living in.

Whilst the care home was absolutely necessary (he was no longer able to care for himself, and my Dad was worn out by trying to be a 24 hour carer), it strikes me that these places exist solely to keep their cash-cows alive, in an un-natural, zombified state. He’s now almost completely cut off, partly through deafness / blindness and partly through being pumped full of drugs all day every day. He rarely leaves his bed except for a quick wheelchair safari in the garden of the home.

I suppose that before care homes existed, people would just die through neglect, which might be even worse….

Quick and unexpected for me please Big Man!

Edited to avoid sinking to your level…

Drop the dog off in a field of sheep – he can amuse himself all day….

But seriously, ours doesn’t often get left for more than three or four hours – the odd day he’s on his own all day, the neighbour comes round and opens the door into the garden for him. Perhaps that could work for you?

SD-253…. Yes cows are interested in people and will amble over to investigate walkers, but that is a very different proposition from having a herd ‘lock-on’ to your dog and start charging.

Very occasionally I’ll forget about a field with cows and calves and take my dog for a walk in the wrong place. It’s happened a few times over the years and it really is terrifying – as has been said, the only thing to do is let the dog off the lead so it can make a break for the nearest exit. And believe me, these cows are definitely intent on trampling the dog. No doubt whatsoever.

The dog does not then turn round and start worrying several tonnes of bovine angriness – he legs it. So please do stop spouting drivel.

Now consider the bugger van

If I saw it coming up behind me, I’d pedal much, much faster….

Crumbs – here’s the dichotomy referred to in my second post. chewy – do you think that buying 2nd hand bits off the classifieds (tax free) which may fail, landing you in hospital, is OK then, being as your choice of pastime hasn’t contributed to the greater good?

Like all the finer things in life, it takes a while to get used to (remember your stabilisers?!). It’s a wee bit like learning to eat Stilton but the payoff is slightly better (especially when taken with a little quality Port).

As for “screwing your head in the long run”, well yes, you might be right, but it’s worth reading the posts above. Some can manage, some cannot. The sensible users are aware of which category they fall into, and comport themselves accordingly. I can’t touch the stuff now, and am anything but sensible, but from the age of 15 onwards, I did enjoy 10 years of not hanging round street corners, not drinking Tennent’s Special and smashing neighbours’ windows and playing music in a bit of a haze.

These threads always reveal a bit of a dichotomy 🙂

I enjoyed it for many years – if nothing else, it’s a good way to get six straight hours of guitar practice in without getting bored….

Agree with the previous poster about the horrendous strength of the weed today – it’s just hideous. There’s nothing mellow about reducing oneself to the state of a valium-head.

When I were a lad (well up until mid-twenties) it was a very sociable drug – we used it in much the same way as others used drink in a pub – just that we got to stay in, meet mates, play music or jam away on various instruments and chew the fat. No hangover, no kicking-out-time-violence.

Just can’t these days 🙁 Miss it and drink too much instead 🙂

After a few years of bad-boys’ ‘summer holidays’ (boot camps for borderline juvenile delinquents / future borstal fodder), I was able to treat my friends and myself to loads of three day bivvy experiences, usually involving some stolen plastic sheeting, some chopped down heather / bracken for a matress and a few bungees for support (physical, not emotional).

Yes, a tent gets you out there and close to nature, the elements, but nothing beats the buzz of building your own home (or den) and then listening to the rain failing to get in.

A Gelert Solo costs £35 though, weighs less than a length of heavy-duty plastic sheeting these days, and will probably last longer too. Still though, if you haven’t done the bivvy thing already, I can highly recommend it!

Puddings in the Lake District?

Gotta be Lucy’s in Ambleside. Proper jam roly-poly and custard style stuff. Luvverly. Save you cooking one day too…

And for every action…..

spooky – exactly that ^^^ occurred to me seconds after posting and I edited them straight away.

Cougar – as an existing subscriber, does that mean I’ll now get two copies of each ‘news’letter? Double the fun!!

Here’s a copy and paste of my email – this thread reminded me to get round to sending it. Just tried phoning them again (fourth time) and as always, no reply after five minutes;

“Dear Sir / Madam,

I am writing to you as a last resort before the Information Commissioner’s Office escalates an existing complaint about your email marketing.

Having taken advice from the above organisation, I am formally asking you once again to remove the following email addresses from your system.

info[at]emersonphotography.co.uk

clareandjamie[at]roylestreet.freeserve.co.uk

I have exhausted every other avenue; unsubscribe link (doesn’t work), emails to every permutation of @dabs.com (no response) and by telephone (never, ever answered). I have collated the last thirty odd emails from you, and also saved my requests not to be contacted, in line with the ICO’s guidelines.

I would therefore be very grateful if you would not contact me again, through any media, other than to address this issue. If after one month, I am still receiving emails, the ICO will press on with their procedures – it seems I’m not the only one being ignored by dabs.com. The question also arises regarding your customer services if something did go wrong with a purchase (I’ve been happy with all of mine, fortunately) but really, who wants to deal with a company which doesn’t answer emails and never picks up the phone?

If the ICO’s procedures are moving too slowly for me (one calendar month) I will certainly be using Twitter, Facebook, my blogs and general word of mouth to stop others from getting the level of unwanted marketing mail from dabs.

Yours in anticipation,”

I get about three a day from dabs.com (computery stuff supplier). Got hacked off having to delete them from both my phone and my inbox so asked several times to be removed, over several weeks. Tried every conceivable contact method before resorting to threatening them with social media, which actually seemed to work for a few weeks. Back up to three a day now though 🙁

“Rubbing along together” is the best advice from ‘The Broons’ through to ‘Just William’. I have inferred very little from the OP other that the pair of them spend large chunks of their lives apart from each other.

Again, IMHO, this is no bad thing. When you say

do some things differently maybe, try something new

, I literally meant the same thing – go fly a kite.

Yes, circumstances differ and we have no idea what the other side of the argument is; I can only go on what I’ve been given, here on this MTB forum. But generally speaking, you get out what you put in.

And how does that qualify someone to give advise on how to save a relationship ? *rolls eyes*

Please don’t roll your eyes ernie – it’s unbecoming. If someone has ‘been-there-done-that’, the experience is worth relating, even if circumstaces differ.

Having seen my sister and brother in law go through Relate, I can say with vigour that they are indeed, spendy.

OP – sspaghetti or whatever. Go fly a kite. With your wife. See which way the wind blows, but don’t **** it off for the sake of ennui.

ernie_lynch – Member

You need to speak to a qualified person who deals with these issues everyday, not unqualified people on a mtb forum who know nothing about the details of your relationship.

Some of us are married you know… I reckon you’re often better off with grass-roots, anecdotal evidence and opinions than you are with pseudo-psychologists whose analysis is costly. Call it friendly advice if you will.

I love my kids, don’t dislike my wife.

Says it all, really. I don’t know you personally but if you’re happy enough with your wife, you’re doing well. You don’t have to be massively in love. You don’t have to feel a rush every time she walks in the room. You needn’t worry if you don’t occassionally and inadvertantly inhale deeply at an old memory.

You just have to rub along together.

I work away for weeks at a time – it’s a great job which involves hanging around in the mountains waiting for the light to be right. I love it and so does the dog. I suspect my wife also enjoys having a house free of dogs and husbands.

Don’t throw away what many strive for – talk to her; make some lifestyle changes. And **** off to mumsnet whilst you’re about it 😉

I’d be more worried that a dog might come along and pee in my helmet. You wouldn’t know until you put it on 😯

Yup – the system is biased heavily toward the buyer – it’s usually up to the seller to provide documentation / proof of posting etc. It’s why I no longer sell on ebay after nearly 800 transactions. Basically, the seller is most definitely guilty until proven innocent!

matpower – Member
I was one of the unlucky ones who lost there bike along with my girlfriend

U lock round her ankle might have helped… But seriously, sorry to hear that…..

beanieripper – Member
best bet for people needing a skills course is a hardtail, or a bmx..

This does raise an interesting point, and certainly seems to have ruffled a few feathers 🙂

All the young lads down at my local skate / bmx park spend every free minute they have hanging out down there. Being youthful types with few responsibilities, they seem to have an awful lot of free time. They are constantly learning new tricks off each other, and there are several loose ‘groupings’ of riders – each group brings fresh perspectives and new ideas.

So they spend a lotof time either riding, or watching others riding. They could be said to be quite commited. They ride with loads of different folk. Us weekend warriors perhaps don’t have the same amount of free time to do that – a skills course is just an intensive short cut to acheiving the same end. I’d do one if I could make the time / money….

crispo – think I’ve worked every Kings race so far. They’re a bit sanitised now they don’t let everyone get minging drunk on the premises before racing…

@crispo – there’s a fair-to-middlin’ chance it would have been me who patched you up – I’m a first aider there…

In the public sector….. If it’s anything like here in Sunderland, they’ve done away with ‘proper’ contracts for a high percentage of the ‘coal-face’ staff (attendants, receptionists etc.) I’ve worked for about six years on a (very) part time basis at a local council run ski slope. Four years ago, most of the P/T staff were told that no guaranteed hours contracts were being renewed – from now on, we’d all be on PVH contracts (as and when required).

So when stafing hours need to be cut back, everyone just gets one shift a week (good week), no redundancies required, no bad press due to job-losses – the only people suffering are those who depend on getting shifts to live. I’m fortunate in that I have another income but there are plenty suffering out there….

Christ there’s some horrendous concoctions being bandied about here! My favourite is pretty similar to the OP’s – milk (has to be Jersey creamy gold top), double cream, white sugar, Mackies vanilla ice cream, touch of cinammon and big piles of bananas. If you get it in the fridge quick and consume within a day it doesn’t go that unappealing shade of brown…

Buy this.

£20 off at Maplins right now. I use Buffalo, Verbatim and Seagate drives and haven’t noticed any appreciable difference in write / read speeds. I’ve got 500GB, 1 and 2 TB drives and they all seem to do the job at the same speed.

The Seagate drives come with their own software which automatically backs up anything new it finds on your HD but I don’t use it as it creates a morass of different backups within backups and I prefer to create folders myself based on date and (photo) subject matter.

Boardman Pro in Skye… It does the job beautifully now it has a decent set of pedals and a tiny-wee stem. It’ll never be a ‘pretty’ bike though – the gun-metal paintjob and yellow graphics are hideous 🙁 I haven’t looked at this years crop but assume the paintjob is better.

Well, it took a bit of a beating over the year – I used it A LOT. Like at the bottom of every climb and the top of every descent. And I fear I may have over-tightened it on more than one occasion 😳

Well, at least my seatpost will never have the time to fuse into the frame (again).

When I first joined, I was more aggravated than intimidated. I posted a picture of my brand new GT i-Drive (of which I was WELL proud) on one of those show-us-yer-bike threads. Imagine my surprise when about 40 complete strangers pointed and laughed, called my pride and joy, “fugly” and complained about the state of my lawn / neighbours brickwork / tiny flecks of mud on the tyres. 😥

I know now that it was all a bit of banter – back then, I took it all very personally. It’s all about understanding the language and oddities of a particular forum – they all have a different way of doing / saying things….

xherbivorex – Member
i get irritated by the whole “baby robin” thing, seeing as it was me that originally posted a photo of one asking what it was and it’s dragging on and on 2 years later!

Wow! Honestly, I’d be proud (sad but true) – I guess it all comes down to how you perceive the post. I don’t think for one second that anyone types “baby robin” with the intention of being anything other than humorous, and am also sure no-one types it to get at you. But I do understand it might grate a bit if you were the original author.

Baby wombles have been making a poor showing recently I notice.

You know you live in a rough area when…

There’s only one, one-way street in and out of the estate and the only car-owners who come in are full of yoofs looking for someone. Managed a booze shop in just such a place and lived there too for a couple of years, and yes; it had the plexiglass, ceiling-high barriers. But they were only installed after the axe-wielding robber took two days’ profit out of the safe 😯

Nearly tried to nail him with a bottle of tonic water but decided it wasn’t worth it for £50….

coffeeking – Member

when you see someone pissing against the front door of a house and when their finished they take out their keys and go in

Cheers, frankie

It was Billy Connolly’s first – Frankie just nicked it!

What a fantastic vehicle! Can’t you just live in that, instead of the bungalow?

How come I’m bleedin’ skint then?!

Whilst I applaud the OP for his admission of error, and whilst I also think he’s had enough of a written beating…..,

Jujuuk68 – Member
The tenner is for a man, with the tool, in a room, with light and heat, open for 12 hours a day, for your walk in walk out convenience, who is insured incase he does harm or damage to you. He has to have change, a machine for accpeting your cards, provide a warranty on repair, and account for VAT and any other relevant taxes, as well as sundires like the squirt of wd40 it needed.

Its not a case of “just getting the right bolt”, its all the above.

AMEN! In fact, if you don’t mind Jujuuk68, I might pinch that quote and use it as an analogy to those who expect free/very cheap photography – the similarities are startling!

“Well you’ve already got a camera, it’ll only take you ten minutes you tightwad”…. Erm, no, I’ve got to feed my family and replace all this gear once every two years, pay for promotion and marketing, my business insurance is double the cost of my car insurance… And in fact, never mind all that (and the rest) I put five years of my life into learning how to do what I do – what price the ticking seconds of my life?

That last question was rhetorical BTW…

That’s no good. Will keep my eyes peeled in sunny Sunderland for them. My mate’s Trek road bike went yesterday too. Off to double check my security…

Would have to agree that the year I spent pedalling around Edinburgh was very pleasant compared to my North East England commutes. They just try to drive through you here – cyclists are so rare they just don’t know how to deal with you 🙁

I remember a trip to York, driving at rush hour – I was amazed at the critical mass of cyclists – all us drivers just had to play by their rules and drive at their speed. Brilliant 🙂

Grand! The font of all knowledge comes up trumps again! Cheers to all – will have a look at the L8 PDF and keep away from the showers…

All advice noted, thanks – will pass it on 🙂 Just doesn’t seem sensible to be splashing water around all over the place in a building where Legionellas have been found, much less picking sludge out of an affected area (apparently, they love matter build up).

The hand washing issue is relevant as a lot of the work is very dirty.