At least 4 barbers on the high street along from me, all were busy and had a queue of desperate men. Much more so than the 3 pubs that were open.

Why did she stay in the states?

Why would she leave? As stated above she has collected enough powerful and wealthy friends to protect her from any charges forthcoming.

I wonder how many people in recent days have left the US on a plane bound for safer locations ala the bin ladens a few years back.

That NETFLIX doc was revealing to me, I didn’t know half the story.

I hadn’t even realised that she was part of the Maxwell clan.

When you hear things like ‘metropolitan elite’ and ‘drain the swamp’ etc etc the same old folks with money and power just keep on rolling and gullible mugs keep on buying it.

There will be a few twitchy moves over the next 6 months, no doubt like Epstein this will take a couple of years for all the rich guilty folk to get their sh!t together and it all goes away

Got some time in Keswick in Oct and another few days in Dec, not sure which bike at this stage will be going.

Also got a few days in Northumberland at end of this month, def road bike for that.

My daughter’s school has just informed her that she needs to meet and greet every child she teaches and the family of child in the last 2 weeks of term.
This seems to me a little bit unnecessary given that we should be trying to avoid large amounts of people in one area at the same/similar time?

Also, she has from Thursday-Monday to prepare reports for every child see teaches, just 200 of them.

I did this challenge in May and was quite happy with my 9500m or so effort come the finish, I looked at the leaderboard after about 3 days and someone had done about 45,000 metres! just look liked a flaw in the system to me. They had done more climbing in 3 days that I would in a 6 months or more.

Just picked up the new toy from local screwfix, went for the Kayak23 suggestion Erbauer for £80, two batteries and tidy little carry case not another plastic box that wont shut properly after two weeks of getting bounced around the garage.

Had a quick play with it in the garden already and I am happy, nice and light in the hand, well balanced. Happy days.

It could soon be my new drill (see combi drill thread)

Bloody Hell Graham that is quite a story!

Nut jobs in the US are nothing new are they, all these trumpers are just following a long long line of gullible idiots taken in by grifters.

I don’t think it’s never not windy here in the NE, at least it seems that way.

So windy recently though I actually picked up a couple of the gold cups on strava on the road bike, an belter of a tailwind. However I put my good fortune down to expert route planning!

Been looking for a non road wheelset to get me off road and I’ve recently spent far to long trying to work out what is compatible with my frame and what might have QR’s not axles and rim width and tyre size and disc ready and in stock before 2022.

Changed my mind now as its complicated (forgive my tiny non-understanding brain) and just looking for an N+1 instead.

Had an early ride out this morning and it was 21 by 8.30am, now sat in the north west wing of the castle* working and its betty swollocks weather for sure.

* aka the spare room

Reads thread

Looks out window at T25 camper sat on drive

Checks bank balance

Reaches for For Sale sign

2 years ago I bought a 3 year old Yeti with 13k on the clock for £12k. Gives me around 55mpg on my 15k a year for work. It’s just gone through 43k total this week, if I do this for another 2 yrs then I will be happy. Gets about 32mpg when towing the caravan as well. Worked out well for me going down this route rather than a company vehicle, mind you we don’t even have a policy as there are only three of us in the business.
Fits all my work stuff no probs, can fit the towbar carrier or roof rack for the bikes. All the seats in the can be removed, turns into a mini van space.

I’m currently in the third and probably my last despite spending a lot of wasted time on Right Move etc looking for alternatives
My 50th Birthday next year will coincide with the mortgage being paid off, assuming brexit doesn’t collapse the FTSE and damage further the stocks and shares ISA I have.

Out front to the North a section of badly cut council grass, first time this year (think Maroune Feiliani gets his hair cut with a knife and fork by a blindfolded and drunk chimpanzee)

Out back I can see best part of the Angel of the North and the hills I ride in, always the hills beckoning like a siren….

Might not directly solve your issue, but I have to do far more stretching exercises and warming up before hitting the road, a good 30mins. Lots of core stuff, I have a neck injury from a car accident years ago so I like to do a lot with that before I head out. Seems to make life easier when I return, also a bit of a leg stretching for a warm down. Simple things like getting out the saddle more and stretching on climbs or on longish flats can ease stiffness.

For ref I’m 49 this year and the paper round was tough.

Fantastic, I only get that much excitement round the feeder when the sparrowhawk drops in for lunch

Home made fish and chips.

White fish breadcrumbed in week old crusts and door step chunks of spuds, par boiled then roasted. Covered in sea salt and cider vinegar.

Not sure this will match well but we have a load of cheese and crackers just pleading to be eaten for afters….

Jeffl – I once slipped on fresh seagull deposit in that car park and doused a renault clio in a large latte, did a poor attempt at a handstand and landed in said deposit. The girl and her mate in the car got a shock, I was off the bike for 2 months.

rascal – I drove from London to Newcastle yesterday and not many of the services have McD’s open, there was a KFC open at Tibshelf and it wasnt serving tea or coffee. I dont touch the food but there wasnt a lot going on southbound on the M1 when I went south on Monday either.

That Booths coffee shop sounds like a good idea.

My current (soon to be replaced) shed has a double socket in it fed from the garage through trucking cable. The control is a light switch rather than a plug socket. Its wired into the consumer unit as ‘downstairs lighting’ it usually powers a lamp in the shed and the occasional use of power tools. I am replacing the socket when the new shed arrives as I will be relocating it in a more practical place and its plastic and I think a metal one will be better inside. I’m also renewing all the external trunking as its a bit weathered, we’ve been here 15 years and it was in a good while before that.

Fair play if you can manage it.

I’m cock a hoop right now cos, I clocked 500 miles in a month for the first time!

Thanks all, I tried the home button/power button hold and whilst waiting for it to boot up checked my phone only to find the bloody speaker connected to it. Switched off the BT settings and hey presto the speaker is now discoverable on the ipad.

Even at half term, every days a school (boy error) day

Must admit all of my deliveries, bike bits or otherwise (beer) recently have been spot on. From a variety of couriers and odd delivery vehicles everything has been intact and on time.

I have an awful feeling this is some massive dead cat and we are missing something else.

There is no way DC was ever going to resign over anything, so he had nothing to loose by coming up here for a family trip out.

I remember watching a linesman at Falkirk run up and down for 35 mins with steak pie bits all over his back for flagging a Partick goal as offside, boy he got shit for the rest of the game. He was about 3 feet from the fans in the stand.

Whilst quality might have been questionable the day out was always fun. That was enough for me

Dumbarton also have a watery view

That Morton Aberdeen game will stick long in my memory, think it was Billy Dodds who scored a hat trick for the Dons. The singing from the fans was brutal. The Morton fans mentioned more than once the inter relationship with sheep and lack of a father in a particular tune that lasted something like 120mins.

Based in Faslane and Rosyth in the 90’s meant catching a lot of games with mates.

Some of the best football memories I have came standing on the terraces at Cappielow, Partick Thistle or at Falkirk.

I once saw Dean Windass score 4 goals in extra time for Aberdeen against Morton in a midweek cup tie every one a worldy. Morton had pegged the big boys back to 3-3 in normal time. The atmosphere in the cow shed was fantastic.

I think its rained here twice since mid March, trails are hard and dusty in even the worst mud attracting locations, thankfully the worst of the lockdown walkers have made for their cars and the trails are now rideable. I shall be out this evening for a little bit of cheeky action I think hoping this wind drops a bit though

Another top notch thread on STW

MrWhyte – that map is a fantastic piece of work

Every day’s a school day! Some interesting stuff on here

264 may have been an exaggeration due to it being nigh on midnight when I realised and I had spent the day changing passwords on all sorts of stuff around the house.

Wish I had thought about changing the name of the new router and just letting everything connect as normal.

I just AirPlay the the show whatever it is from the app on my iPad to the tv via the Apple TV box, we’ve already established my tech knowledge is woeful so I won’t be changing anything soon for fearing of the tv disappearing in a black hole. The Apple TV is a work tool and I think this is the second time I’ve used it.

Cougar – nice line, though I did have to look up what a switch was.

A few years back wasn’t some a few articles on the coffin roads around the country in the magazine?

How folk would try to avoid death taxes by travelling routes to the church for the burial, many of these are now great trails.
I use some of the old beeching lines and former coal lines around my way and often wonder what went before. Even now I ride a line regular that as a kid I lived near that had trains running down along it, we lived not far from a crossing. Seems a million years ago now when I ride it.

Right, I have dowsed the flaming torches and laid down my pitchfork, the new router that came from Virgin today and a (severe) senior moment is the cause.

I need to put the new wifi and password into the Apple TV and it will solve my problems, 264 items that need wifi in the house and I forgot one. 1st world bloody problems.

Well, its not a smart TV its an 8yr old Samsung plasma and I’m running the casting through a 4K Apple TV box. I get my TV via Virgin and a Tivo box, the App is on an iPad bang up to date with the latest ios.

Kelvin – a very good point, my daughters school is looking at 2 leaving her dept this summer who wont be replaced and I know she is leaving next year without fail.

I guess we will have to bring in the skilled teachers from overseas that PP keeps bumping her gums about.

Bojo hardly needs a cabinet when he has all of the newspapers doing his heavy carrying

The fear in Paddy Considine’s early scenes sets the tone perfectly.

+1 for Death of Stalin, stunning cast, brilliant pace to the film and although largely comedic in tone a reminder of how brutal life could be behind the curtain.

TTOI was genius at the time and remains so, although the last 5 years of politics seem to have beaten it to the punch on so many occasions. When Bozo was foreign sec I think the BBC did a documentary following him around for a few months, the show was like the love child of W1A and TTOI.

Did a big run on the road bike yesterday, a fair number of riders out and about, the strong winds and cooler temps seem to be keeping most of the recent converts at home or elsewhere. I did see lots of motorbikes out on group runs around the lanes in Northumberland.

The OH and daughter had a walk down to the Quayside in Newcastle Sunday afternoon they found it busy and some folk not respecting the ‘rules’ on distancing and not even making an effort. Quite a few masks in evidence though.

Saturday teatime I hit my local MTB routes and found it great fun, not so many folk around so for the first time in weeks I managed to have some fun.