I’ve had 2, first one was donkeys years back when I was in the Navy and although I could have dodged it I wasn’t going to knock a couple of weeks at home!

Did my last one 2 years ago this month, bloody awful thing, knocked me for some time afterwards. Some horrible things happen to people.

Home made chicken enchiladas

A Brass Castle Brewery Sunliner then some Rioja then some more.

Watched that Shipman doc on BBC iPlayer

For nearly 20 yrs I’ve suffered this fate, bloody customers wanting me to go and visit and forcing me to spend more time on strava, google maps and here looking for suitable which bike? rides.

This situation (kinda) forced me to get a road bike 7 years ago. I’d gone to London for 3 days work and was stopping out east took my mtb to the Olympic park for a spin of the course only to find 2 years after the Olympics it still wasnt ready for public use…a full suss spin around Barking and Ilford was not really that much fun

My Arkose is a 2015 frame and I’ve just added some new Hunt’s and Schwalbes 35’s to it, I swap the wheels around depending what I’m riding I have Mavic Askium with Conti 4 seasons on 28’s.

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Managed to crack in 15 miles on the new hoops from @hunt.road tonight, good to get the #arkose back to its off road roots.

A post shared by Ian Thompson (@iant71) on Sep 18, 2020 at 2:04pm PDT

To replace a car? A cargo bike I think, very practical for a bit shopping and such like.

Regardless of the tax thing, well done to her for getting a job.

Whats a widget?

@spacemonkey writers? don’t need them just copy and paste the actual words these morons speak.

My good lady, its her garden and she wont let me near it.

If I was asked to do much green fingered wise then my favourite tool is a sponge daffodil we picked up in B&Q 20 years ago for kneeling on. Works for my dodgy knees every time.

Ok own up who bought the sex pond from B&Q Silverlink I was just looking at????

One of you did after reading the PSA above!

I’ve never had or wanted FB and I ditched twitter in Jan. All that BS is still out there but I try not to expose myself to it now. Trying to avoid the silo view. I get that people have different views I always have, but the division that social media now creates seems to be more and more destructive to society (if society still exists, you only ever hear of nations being described as economies these days, we are no longer a people) and the control that bots and algorithms have is skewing views of many people to a dangerous perspective.

I shall continue to avoid it.

Get 3 plastic beakers and a ping pong ball and start conning the gullible tourists milling around out of their holiday cash.

Put on a yellow vest and start fining people the minute they get on the plane for not adhering to the 1mtr distance rule.

Use ya card.

Yates might have a bash today, I think there is genuine competition for that 3rd podium spot and it’s got some good players in it. Really pleased to see Porte riding so well, EF have a decent few riders left to help out Uran go for it as well. All depends how much they paid out in yesterdays stage energy wise which was tough going up that last final climb.

My BIL is off to get his 11yr old tested this morning on instruction from the school she’s at as 1 of the kids in her class has tested positive and they are in this bubble together.

He’s driving to Galashiels for the test, he lives in Newcastle where no testing is available

E: Steak and sweet potato chips later this evening
D: Couple of pints of Allendale at the newly reopened Central Bar near the Tyne Bridge
L: My dog moaning and groaning because I am sat in the pub not walking her despite the 2 mile walk to the pub.

I think my T25 (or T3 to keep Picton happy) has about 90bhp on a 1.6td engine, it flows quite well on roads and can tackle a decent hill as long as it gets a running start, I hate getting stuck at the bottom of a hill and pulling up it can be a bit painful and pretty slow. It is 5 speed and power steering.
The T2 we hired years ago was 1.4 petrol I think and pretty much the same as my van, pulled along nicely but didnt fly up any hills without plenty effort and gearbox work.

You have to work these vans gently and remind yourself they are old and nowt like getting in a modern car.

Another cracking sprint finish, little nudge from Sagan reminding Van Aert he’s still got it, not much in it for me result should stand.

For many years in the 90’s I made the trip from Helensburgh to Glasgow Queen St and then Central down to Newcastle, heading home was always good but I did like this route and also Central Station (both Glasgow and Newcastle) are great buildings.

More recently I’ve been going on the ale trai(n)l from Newcastle to Carlisle and back hitting all the little towns along the way for a beer. Great fun and the scenery is great.

*not a builder*

My mate just did exactly the same to convert part of the garage into a toilet. He’s a window fitter anyway but he put a new lintel in and got a pal to brick up to a height and then fitted the window himself. No planning needed round our way for that, quite a few have converted garage into downstairs room as going above the garage was prohibitive in cost.

So many times you see the breakaway guy just fall off the back once caught, that was a mighty impressive effort to hit the line by Hirschi.

My G3 still has great battery life but now some apps are starting to say they wont work with the software (Android 6) can’t update beyond this, so looking for something new.

Had a look at the G8 is £5 more than I paid for the G3 brand new nearly 5 years ago.

Seems like good value to me.

I do like Hat Mancock as a nickname.

Him and Raaaaaaab remind me of so many people I worked with in the past who had smoke blown up them by gibbering managers and then single hand-idly failed to deliver a single thing of worth and everything they did deliver were just words written for them by the gibberer’s.

I was in my local branch in the last hour and all of the staff were having a moan to themselves about the new IT system, seems a lot of cart before horse action going on and causing a shat storm for the staff.

FWIW I rang the branch before going in and the number has changed to some 0343 type thing rather than local dialling code.

Same day service and parts fitted so I am not going to complain about the staff instore.

Thats a great video, I’ve been thinking for a while it was all to do with my fork and tyre pressure that was dropping my confidence on certain sections of trail but its not at all. Need to change the body position, totally get that.
Always felt the front end was just going to wash away underneath me and had no grip, just need me to put a bit more of me upfront.

looks at the 2021 calendar and starts planning…

I used to see a lot of older folk around the shopping mall in Maple Ridge picking empties and clearing bins to supplement the pension

Thats the badly fitted one, needs to run off into the pond rather than down the side of the summerhouse. However the plan to do that one sunny weekend in August has all but gone in a downpour or 5.

Things from years ago come back to haunt me on a regular basis and have done forever. The most innocuous most ridiculous nothings, that nobody will ever recall but me. I find myself screaming in my own head ‘why did I say that???’ Nobody commented at time or replied angrily its just some stupid thing that sticks in my head and wont go away.

Its pathetic and drives me mad and as somebody said above sometimes I wish I had that ‘couldn’t give a shit’ button

Some very good advice above, little tip if you have never done anything before get the in laws to go through the whole set up on site routine, hooking up electrics, filling water barrel and connecting to van, fitting the waste water tank, levelling up with the steadies basically everything and record it all on your phone.

Have a tow before you go.

Def check weights and licence.

If all the above hasnt put you off, have some fun and enjoy, we are all due some downtime.

The olympic champion of disaster capitalism

If he has, he didn’t plant it in Newcastle

E – Turkey burgers in buns with some spicy cheese from Morrisions all GF

D – Shiraz

L – watched a bit footy and now watching stuff i’ve recorded

Great soundtrack

Sad news to hear another rider has completed their final mile. RIP

I’m not a local but have been working out of Southampton area last couple of days and enjoyed a ride north out to Romsey and looping back in via Totton. Tonight I had a good ride down to the coast at Calshot and back up to Nursling.

Thanks for that, I asked a train driver mate and he said ‘we do have ticket offices still you numpty, show them your confirmation email’

This, this and this again…

I despair at the supposed choices we get in elections, some idiots say we get the governments we deserve, but we don’t really get a choice, it’s like a card trick with the establishment offering the cards they want to be chosen.

Having the same thing done now, plumber been around tonight to confirm all plans.

2.5m x 2.5m room, half of which is single skin brick which will require 50mm insulation behind plasterboard, its south west corner of house so sun drenched (as far as the NE of England gets). We plan also the condenser dryer mounted above the washing machine on a unit, and a window to the SW.
With the floor being raised 100mm and insulated then weyrocked the builder and plumber said we wouldn’t need the rad.

Don’t know what your time scale is for purchase @littlerob but we hired a van first after a year of visiting shows, for sale vans and VW events then took another 2 before finding the van I have now. We went through the whole ‘lets get a T5, hell look at the price!’ ‘Maybe a T2, my god how much’ ‘A T4 then, actually no’ ‘hello whats this T25 thing?’

Takes a while to find the right one and always worth hitting the road to look at vans for sale, talking to owners to find out pitfalls, good points, bad points and the joys to help you make the right choice.

Agree with this

it doesnt need to be showroom perfect to be fun or work.

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Beach camping in the dunes

A post shared by Ian Thompson (@iant71) on Jun 22, 2016 at 9:34am PDT

Thats our sun awning and drive away set up, this was just before we got flooded on a beach in the Netherlands and not through a high tide just a teency weency 6 hour thunderstorm. What joy.

As jaylittle says, Ross beach is a beauty! One end it has Lindisfarne and the other Bamburgh and you cant get to either.