Many games down the years have looked sewn up with a minute left on the clock only for the tables to turn with some outrageous plays and fortune.

That’s what makes it a great spectacle.

Any whistleblower won’t be somebody with morals it’ll be the first one to spot a new grift opportunity

That was a fantastic game, a brilliant match up of teams really going for it.

@mboy the risk is the clock kinda stops when you score a TD and that’s gives the opposing side more time on the field to try and score themselves. By sitting down on the 1yard line they retain the ball and can kill them game off as they have a new set of downs.

29 long weeks ahead.

I attempted to reduce my Dads DD to something acceptable after they were asking for £600 pm , when I tried it they said be aware you will be in debt and it’ll be your fault. At the time he was sat on £500 credit.

I wanted to switch into meter readings only and hit the button to do that, last two months they’ve charged him £640. Every time I contact them I wait 10 days for a response.

went onto shell from first utility who were never a problem.

@trail_rat I guess if they are local and fit that remit then yes support them in the same way they support the local community, Fierce have a few beers I can drink, the rhubarb pale is a belter. I’ve not been in a brew dog pub I didn’t like the look of or atmosphere inside, I guess many people have the James Watt/Tim Martin ‘he’s a dick, sod him and his beer/pub’ attitude. That’s fine ( I’m def like that with Spoons) but plenty smaller breweries offer great beer and pubs that get overlooked, check them out, give em go and if you enjoy them tell people about them cos they might not have the same level of marketing budget that gets them the profile

Why not sign up to the emails from your own local breweries and support them, Januaryis a prime time to get loads of special offers from brewers who’ve gone brewing for the Xmas new year rush and have a selection of beers left they need to move on for storage space.

I’m a bit special (my own description admittedly) cos I’m GF (not through choice) but all my fave brewers who do great beer regardless of the fact the beer is GF or vegan or veggie or none of that have plenty of great offers on the go.

Check out Brass Castle fromMalton in North Yorkshire, the aforementioned Vocation from West Yorkshire, Bellfield in Edinburgh have deals on right now, Purity in th west mids, Loads of local brewers supplying local bars and employing local people make beer and need to sell off excess occasionally

Go explore like you would on ya bike!

If only they would put the same amount effort into running the country (not into the ground) as they do into lying, cheating and plotting against each other and the populace then we might actually see some governance rather than a bunch of crooks with the pretence of governing.

I took a ferry from Aberdeen to Shetland years ago for work, overnighter via Kirkwall into Lerwick the following morning. Then travelled back to Stromness Orkney for work then to Scrabster 10 days later. Think the ferry trips cost £600+ for a long wheelbase transit we had for work, might have been more my colleague paid on his work card.

I took mine around 7 years ago. Had a few months off then got a job I’m still with and enjoying (on certain days at least!)

I got given 90 days notice and a payout which was around 10 months equivalent to annual salary. At the time anything over £30k was subject to tax so I asked the company to put it in my pension as an AVC. Wasn’t more than £2k but no reason to give it away to the tax man.

My role kinda wound down from the day I was given the option to go so I mooched around sort of working without anybody looking at me as they had already moved on from yours truly.

Take the money and run.

Quick edit: just read crazy legs point about benefits, at the time (the government are tweaking rules all the time so do check) my pay off was not means tested against benefits and because I had work consistently for a period of more than two years I was entitled to £75 a fortnight? Might have been a week can’t recall. This kept my NI contributions going. Although for that I did have to go and sign on every fortnight. Also had a Nurse Ratchet type at the job centre, I won’t set foot in that place again.

Blackbirds round here can be a bit like the robins, they will fight over a patch. We once had 4 chasing each other around for a week before the winner was declared.
Smaller birds have been in shorter supply last 2-3 years whereas jackdaws and magpies have grown in number.
We have wood pigeons, collared doves and a good size group of starlings visiting, I like the starlings they are fun to watch unfortunately messy eaters and that brings the pigeons down from the roof tops to pick up the scraps.

Hoping we get the long tail tits back this year, always a nice sight. Held back a bit on bird food these last 18 months due to a bit of a rat problem in the area.

Great show, I saw the stage play at The Lowry a few years back. Brilliant set, the flat was positioned above the bar.

Apres pints suggestion, Bellfield Brewery. Includes a few more cobbles large outside/inside drinking area and close to finish.

Shell just emailed in the last hour, once again they say based on my dads usage he needs to up his D/D to £490pm (currently £470 in credit). I cannot reduce his D/D to below £430 so I have sacked off the fixed D/D and applied to have him billed on usage alone. Aside from the fact he is 82 and does not have £490 to pay them every month why should he pile up a reserve.

Incidentally, same company supply my fuel I have an £830 credit and I can bring mine down to £220. Makes no sense. Little old man in a bungalow, family in a semi.

Fancy glitzy packaging and printing was all fine and dandy when we went to shops for stuff, we are online now nobody goes around looking for the nicest box

And who in their right mind ever did?

A bog standard plain cardboard box won’t make it a worse pedal, shifter or dropper leaver.

Yes, what tractionman said

Wild Atlantic Way

Had a mini tour this august visiting family in Belfast and Derry. Travelled around northern Donegal and then down the coast to Bundoran and beyond before heading back inland to Enniskillen and finally Belfast again.

Hit lucky with some perfect weather

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ch46MNtoTFr/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Think I’ve linked that ok

Absolutely horrible thing, I felt like I had stroke symptoms, could hardly speak everything was going slow, mouth wouldn’t work fully and the dizziness and nausea you have my full sympathy. It hadn’t to me one week before lock down, missed my friends funeral as I could hardly stand up.

This thread makes me feel almost grateful somebody just stole my bikes and saved me trying the shift them on.

During the 70’s blackouts we lived in a house without central heating and used paraffin heaters, is that stuff still available cos I’m pretty sure my old man will still have the heaters in his garage.

In April Shell Energy fitted a new meter to my Dad’s gas, he already has the electricity one in place. He was paying £140 per month.

The meter as of Saturday showed he had used in total £640 for G&E since 14th April. EDIT; he’s currently £400 in credit

They are getting £278pm from him but send me emails every week advising I up this to £462pm with warnings of debt and recovery.

I’m not moving it beyond the £278pm which is the lowest amount I can set the d/d at online.

This is for an 81yr old man in a bungalow.

I work at home all day in a 3 bed semi and they are happy I pay £240pm.

Offer received from Halifax today, breakdown as follows;

They offered a total of £2503 for both bikes

They said equivalent Cannondale can be bought for £503 online now and the Camber equivalent would be the Stumpy but as the max per bike is £2k thats all they could offer.

I bought the Cannondale from ebay just a couple of months after the 2012 olympic bike rush, unused and boy it certainly was. Paid £295 and the guy gave me the receipt from Sunset Cycles for £525.
The Camber I got from a previous insurance claim was IIRC listed at £1850 (probably in 2011?) it was a replacement for the Stumpy that was stolen which I paid £1500 for in a sale at Edinburgh Cycles.

A small excess leaves me with a fair few quid to play with. I think the OH wants a lightweight simple city/commuter type thing which should be easy to pick up and then I can decide whats next.

Can’t argue with the process really and they’ve been fairly quick. I suppose if you have a more valuable bike you really want to be specifying it as the limit is £2k per bike on my home policy (these bikes were covered in outbuildings including garage and shed as well as away from home). My road bike which cost £3k is chained to the roof in my garage and is on a separate policy.

As you can see from the dates I don’t change my bikes often so in this case the under £2k value works for me reasonably well.

Off to start a what new bike thread….

Missed another phone call from Halifax this morning, voice mail says they are happy with the evidence provided and are ready to make a cash settlement. I rang back but it’s just the usual ‘we are very busy etc’ hopefully a call tomorrow from them.

I was offered a bike from Wheelies(?) Last time I had to claim but this is cash, not sure what to expect or accept.

Interestingly on my renewal they upped the maximum payout per bike, I gave comparable bikes as examples (might have got a bit cheeky with the camber) I suggested a stumpy comp alloy and a similar Cannondale trail 5 HT. The Cannondale was my OH’s commuter for work that was fitted with some semi slicks.
Can’t see me getting stumpy cash levels but let’s see.

Time wise although it’s been 18 days since the burglary, because I was unable to complete documents due to working away, it’s taken Halifax probably 6 days to get to the offer.

Quick update on my claim.

Logged on as they didn’t do calls on the day of the break in, had to supply details of the burglary and police crime number, then supply details on the bikes and any additional equipment fitted.

Halifax sent a link to my own upload pics portal type thing.

So far I’ve put on images of the broken shed, hooded yoofs disappearing down the street, me all over on the bikes and such. They rang me at 5.59 this evening which I missed and they shut at 6pm.

Also they ask for you to give details when uploading images, but then give only you 30 characters max to type.

I’ve yet to give the required ‘replacement costs’ estimate as the Camber that was stolen is no longer in the Spesh line up. Struggled to get the original receipt as the Camber was a replacement for my stolen Stumpy via insurance. Thankfully I have paperwork for the Cannondale.

So, I will await a call from them and see what happens next.

Haven’t caught up with this episode yet but somebody on here couple years back posted a link to Sniff and Smith podcast (2 men in a field? Episode) and I’ve been a fan of late brake show/carpervert ever since. Always liked Jonny on 5th gear, he’s really created something with his channel.

Well Halifax claim line is not open on a Sunday so your option to claim is via an online website. I shall update as the claim progresses.

About to test the claims procedure with Halifax as my two bikes went last night from the garden shed.

I see they have rescinded this bizarre advice

Sold my Yeti 3 months, 2l diesel, the most solid practical little car I’ve ever had. Lift the seats out the back and it was a small van, tow bar on the back for bike rack, roof rails for even more bikes. Perfect.
Sold it with 67k on the clock, regularly gave me 55mpg, even when towing a caravan I got 32mpg. Only thing I changed was two headlight bulbs, full set of tyres and the timing belt in 4.5 years of ownership. Belt has to be done around the 62k mark IIRC.

I have an STW mousemat* that looks like the screen grab from MuffinMan.

* a mouse is a device that was often used to move the cursor around the screen and then you clicked it. The mat was to aid movement of said mouse over a smooth surface.

I suppose that dates me enough. But I recall the earliest find of STW was around early 2000 when working for BT and sat on a nightshift looking for a new bike I came across this website that talked about bikes and stuff. That was it.

Bought myself a 2000 Rockhopper with 63mm Judy forks and rim brakes and I was off!

Even then, within a few months I had been swayed by a review describing the wonders of disc brakes and an upgrade occurred.

OH boy, did it look good in blue and white with its Panaracer Fire XC 1.8’s

If using Aires try villages or towns with a municipal pool or leisure centre, very handy for a shower after a few lengths to ease the muscles and freshen up. I bought one of the French Aire guide books years ago when we did europe in the camper it was handy for (winging it) planning the route. It barely dropped below 30 for a fortnight so if we weren’t on a campsite the Aire with a local pool was a winner. Some Aires do have facilities however, we used one in Stenay that was showers and hook for €8 per night. Sounds mad typing that, it was 2014 & 15 when we did our tours so possibly its a tad more now.

I went to watch an FA Cup game this afternoon at a local club. 2-1 home win, 2 missed pens and red card and 200+ happy fans and a pretty decent traveling support from South Yorkshire.

We converted our utility after the first lockdown finished, it was really just a small kitchen off the back of the garage.

I stripped everything out, builder bricked up the back door, I fitted the raised floor, joiner did a partition wall for the toilet and handbasin, some insulation, plasterboards, sparky for lights and switches and tin of paint later and we had a cracking laundry room and downstairs toilet. With paint and new flooring down I think the whole job was around £3.8k

EDIT: size wise 2.5m x 2.5m

Its been very useful and has tidied up what was just a dumping ground for crap I couldnt fit elsewhere. I kept some of the old kitchen units and they have become useful in the garage for storing bits and bobs and beer.

Brentford are on shaky ground I think, 5 or 6 games without a win. Big 6 pointer at the weekend for them and others hoping not to get dragged in.

I would love the be in the velodrome for the Paris Roubaix finish.
Always wanted to be at the boxing day ashes test match.
Any NFL game.

Possibly another thread, but

I did see England regain the ashes at Durham in 2013. Took my dad, that was a day.
I also saw the rugby League world cup final at Old Trafford.
Also saw my home town football club play at Wembley. Gateshead, we lost bit we are on our way back!

Diagnosed coeliac nearly 16yra ago, lots of meals I don’t really do anymore.

Sure as hell miss a man bread.

It will be released as a Wordle and you will have to guess the answer yourself.

Last week we had questions about washing machines and such like, I’m looking forward to the deflection questions before Blackford gets his chance to jump in.

Sometimes bozo struggles with the questions he’s expecting as much as he does with the hits from opposition which just exemplifies his uselessness

So no native species trees in the woods or non native animals in the waterways are bad in our environment, but dumping tons of former house brick/motorway tarmac backfill is just fine?

Just watched Dorries on C4, apologies if it’s your town but I think the whole area she represents should be nuked immediately. Any human that votes for this woman is a harm to others.

Erbauer cordless drill

Another Worx Hydroshot

A few books

A dropper post

A subscription (that was back in 2003 though)

Numerous sets of tyres