Hey Ambrose

Happy New Year!

how was the curry?

sorry to have missed it :(

we'll have to organise a self relience ride with the usual crew?

mud/rivers/caves/potholes/blowholes/bothies/snow/ice/rain/mechanicals/nightride/beer/homebrew/pignuts/calvados the works!!

a bit of a grey area really, depends where you go.

try a friendly LBS who run the scheme.

mine was great :D

will Smithy make it?????????

Noel from Hearsay??

x2 Goonies doing the "truffle shuffle" as I type

snowing in Aberdare

hoping for some of that Aviemore snow please

in the dolls house/toy garage delete as approprite?

in the coal bucket – my kids favourite

in the christmas tree

the list is really endless happy hunting

not yet but thinking of having a go at it to aid my weight loss as beer is my achilles heel.

work functions/occasional bike rides, aside I think for me it would be quite easy to do so why not!

I'll be a part teetotaler for 2010

:lol:good lad :wink:

enjoy a wobble tomorrow

will be a bit gloopy in places as we've had a load of rain today, maybe bit of snow on exposed bits but as long as you don't mind the mud you'll be fine fella, just get stuck in :wink:

All the forecast snow hasn't come to much, I live over the hill from Afan, mountains dusted for sure

have a daddy special

look in fridge, hopefully bit of bacon/sausage/ham/beef/pork/turkey and grab a frying pan fry it up with onion and herbs in olive oil, a few birds eye chillies, few dashes worcester sauce.

boil some pasta of choice, once al-dente' put into frying pan and mix up to get all flavour out of pan.

grate some cheese on top and crushed black pepper and the final insult a good lash of tommy sauce.

My fave post ride scran with a pint of milk :D

guess I wont be having this too often once bike18 fat club starts :oops:

Renault grand scenic loads of room for kids plus seats come out so it's a van for biking best family car I ever bought for the wife.

other that that

1 Mondeo or a Vectra they are huge
2 Accord
3 Focus
4 Mazda 6
5 Mazda 5
6 Avensis (verso?)
7 Vauxhall signum
8 I could go on

guess it depends what job it is and what field?

I find best way is to research the company so you can ask constructive questions.

Also always have 5 or so questions to ask, I hate it when I am interviewing and when asked do you have any questions the answer is no – just feel the person is not that interested.

Remember it is your chance to interview the company representative too as you may not like your potential boss.

I have walked out of a number of interviews as I thought there was no way I could work with/for this person and haven't regretted it.

Good luck and let us know how you get on :wink:

a few driving offences in past when I was a boy racer but that was 15 years ago now got a sleeper Audi to race the lot of 'em great fun – but don't tell the rozzers :D

first port of call citizens advice bureau.

look on interweb for consumer rights and read them carefully and pick relavant points to your case to nail them.

Pretty sure they will get away with a useage fee, depends on how many miles you have done etc?

good luck

whoo wifi phone works mega

just spoke to Orange business support who said there is a major outage in my area so no network coverage at home until 1st January :cry:

did say I could connect via my wi-fi so going to try that for skype type calls

Blinkin still off GRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr :x

I had the week before Xmas with the outlaws trapped in a rented cottage in Macynlleth which went ok as I insisted I could take my Genius and blasted the trails around there everyday so had my space, then got wasted on cheap cava and real ale :P

But agree forced living together with folks is difficult.

My outlaws are thinking of moving back to Scotland in the New Year which will mean the return of weeks in their house and ours come holday season :( I really thought we solved that issue when they bought a house near us to be by the kids. But not happy here so moving back home, which is fair enough I suppose.

well I would say Orange apart from today as the network has crashed seemingly.

I live in S.Wales and to be fair it really varies where you are as I have had all of the main 4 networks over the past 5 years and they all suffer with coverage in remote areas.

If I'm going far off the beaten track I take 2 phones my contract orange and a pay as you go O2 that is always in the bottom of my camelbak just incase.

But you should never rely on a mobile phone to get you out of trouble as for sure the time you really need it there'll be no coverage – true 999 may still work

all I can think of is teeth

JoeBones O2?

yes can get O2 here but never had a problem with Orange coverage in my hometown before.

Had O2 a few years back and had issues in the mountain areas too

I'm in Aberdare, S.Wales

count me in lost nearly 2 stone in 2009 all down to coming back biking and need to loose another 2 stone if I'm honest maybe 1 more. :oops:

I'll then have a really light bike :lol:

email in profile

got about 5cm of wet snow/slush here in Aberdare :(

want some powder to play in :lol:

awesome that's great I'll be there :wink:

that's issue 246 with free bottle opener???????

issue 247 out 13th Jan

it's out I got a copy in a fuel station in Machynlleth so must be fairly widespread now fella, also seen it in Tesco etc :-)

I guess change door to a steel faced one to help prevent drilling or solid hardwood??

Also reinforce door frame with a few extra frame bolts if not 100% solid.

Add the side bolts that fit recesses in door frame to resist door being kicked in.

As for window, steel bars bolted on inside securely, so visable from the outside so hopefully putting off entry this way, but not making shed look like a prison. Maybe possible to retro fit them into brickwork if you have the enthusiasm to take out bricks and cement in bars and refit bricks? Also fit plastic film over glass that prevent glass shattering thus making it nastier to get through window.

Ground anchors are great but make sure they are fitted in a way to prevent levering them or locks out, ie close to wall under bikes, also fit one on wall again behind bikes where access with bolt croppers, crow bar would be difficult.

Alarms/CCTV great if someone is around to respond to them, HD recording so if the worst happens you may get some ID on the scoundrels.

usually out with various groups on night rides or weekend epics, occasionally on my own but worry about "offs".

However I do train with one other ex fell runner who bullies me to go further and faster till I puke :mrgreen:

duntstick – brilliant, just hope they can get some in stock thanks for the link

Ambrose – are you after one?

brakes – yes div sums me up on this one!!

but it did look like a crack and wrongly assumed it was the ally as I had wacked the headset in with my rubber mallet.

:D
would you believe it stripped frame down to scrap and thought I wonder if it's just the paint – guess what I was, the scamp, as the frame is a few years old the paint is obviously brittle on exposed edges so when I pressed on the headset it cracked the paint. :-)

So now have 2 HT frames as bought a 2nd hand one from LBS

water melon juice and electric bagpipes :wink:

old speckled hen and shed heads on sky plus – bliss

jcromtom ygm no promises

thanks for all the advise I am going to strip frame and start again.

jcrompton thanks for offering up the Scott I'll bear it in mind.

ally Rockhopper WHY?

only had the frame a week so couldn't give a toss, may keep it as a reminder to be more carefull weilding the hammer :oops:

ok you've all convinced me to scrap frame and start again :(

have posted in classifieds.

does anyone have a 18/19" frame they can sell to me?

yep sure is me Ambrose, wise words, when I saw it I was going to get the angle grinder out and cut it up in frustration :evil:

I'll tap you up for some route info soon