Love Lidl bakery, like an Aldi shop as it seems they copy what’s popular at m&s and make a much cheaper version and the fact there is limited choice means it makes it quite a quick convenient shop for me.

Sainsbury’s is my closest supermarket so convenient to pick up the odd items, not very fond tbh, bakery has been massively reduced which used to be their highlight and find their prices much higher than the competition.

Used Ocado for convenience for a good while but cost 40% more than an Aldi shop so couldn’t justify the extra in the end.

Not been in an Asda for years.

Tesco, I like their lunch meals but never like the layout so not done a full shop there in the last 10 years.

Morrison’s are definitely my favourite, good Value and love the market feel and really good prices. Great bakery, veg, fish, meat, gets my vote.

My shopping preference is convenience/layout, good food and good value

This post spiked my interest as I’d been close to ordering one of those Emma mattresses. Happened to pass ikea today so popped in to try out the Hovag. Both firm and medium firm felt superb so picked up a king size in medium firm. Stopped in Egypt this summer and the firm mattress there crippled me so figured id prefer a little softer. Impressive how its rolled up and at £229 seems a bargain

I have an original Apple Watch I’ve had since launch that I use for work and is really only any use as screen extension from my phone as it’s really slow with its age and lack of tech.

I’ve had a 44mm series 4 Nike editon since launch which is a brilliant bit of kit. Extra screen size is better, more responsive and due to the extra power is much more usable as a stand alone device to make calls/text from.

I use it as a running and cycling tool with Strava which it is brilliant for. Apple Music is downloaded onto my watch so I load strava, connect my Bluetooth headphones to the watch (Powerbeats pro and AirPods connect fine btw), listen to my music whilst strava records my speed, distance, heart rate etc. Only thing that annoys me is Apple don’t allow Spotify app to download music to it.

I’m thinking of changing to a series 5 however as I think the always on screen would make a good improvement

iPhone 11 is the current sweet spot of the iPhone range for price vs spec. iPhone X has a much more premium build and the Oled screen is a massive step up over the led in the 11. I’ve just swapped from an x to a 11 pro max and whilst there is little gain in performance, the battery and camera is in another league. Finding the max a bit too big after the x which is strange as I had a 6 plus and 7 plus for 3/4 years before the x which was fine before and the same size as the pro max. Oh I’m also really missing 3D Touch

Could never get on with apple headphones as they don’t seem to fit my ears very well. Had previous Powerbeats which were okay but weren’t the loudest and didn’t sound amazing

Now have the new Powerbeats pro which are in another league. Fit my ears perfectly, don’t move when running or mountain biking and rarely have the sound above 70% as they sound incredible. Placing back in case charges them back up and will recharge 3 times of one case charge. Most impressed I’ve been with an audio product for years. Over ear headphones are no longer used

Solid 8 out of 10 for me. I’m not a massive Star Wars fan, can tolerate the first 6 movies, really like force awakens, less so tlj but enjoyed this as much as force awakens I think. Probably prefer rogue one to all of them and solo I quite enjoyed also. Good popcorn film to sit back and relax over the Xmas break

Where’s the tool bags, spare coats, jump leads, track pump, umbrella, old towels etc. etc…… 😁

All removed for 2 weeks of Xmas joy 😂 but I carry everything in dewalt tstak boxes so takes a couple of mins to empty

Only carry one bike in my short wheelbase 2019 partner so just goes in at an angle strapped at back, high strap at bars over to door and then a bungie at the base of front wheel to keep it straight. Not strapped in in this pic but only one I have

F7FEBE4E-5AFD-48A2-AEE1-A54585F14489 by win rya[/url], on Flickr

Kryton – right now I am ashamed to have a uk passport and if I could have a differnt one I would in a heartbeat.

disgusting racist government, PM and policies, disgusting lack of care for the poor, the old, this disabled.

Institutional bias and lies accepted as the truth, completely dysfunctional parliament

I loathe what the UK has become and have no pride in it whatsoever. I am ashamed to be considered british

Much of my feeling right now. Total opposite to how I felt 4 years ago. And it’s getting worse. When travelling Europe I’ll try and pretend I’m Scottish as it seems I’ll look less pathetic

Cheers for the tip. Don’t need any more but appears I now have some extras being delivered

I’ve just picked up a Worx hydra shot to keep in my van with an old adblue 10 litre container filled with water and it works an absolute treat. Nicely made, really surprisingly powerful and in theory will do my bike 4-5 times per charge. Nice to be able to get home with the bike already clean and not having to open up gates, drag pressure washer round the back, power, hose etc very convenient

Our vented dryer that lives in the garage (electric shutter so would just raise it a couple of inches when on) died last Thursday.

Did a little research and decided to try a heat pump. A little more expensive, but uses a third of the electricity of the vented or condensor dryers. (£33 compared to £105 average per year or so I read)

Was delivered yesterday and the wife had it running most of the day and her feedback was that it was just as quick, much quieter and everything came out feeling softer. Seems the sensor drying, some anti tangle, anti crease functions went down well with her. But thumbs up it seems

Oh and if you have a drain near, the pipe can go straight down it to save having to empty the tank

Thanks for the feedback. Did you demo the 27.5 version ?

Have you taken it out yet? I’m about to order but cannot decide between the 27 and 29er. All my previous riding has been 27.5 wheels but the only reviews I can find are of the 29er

I was going to, but after trying the 29 I didn’t see the point!

I’ve demo’d about 7 bikes over the past year, and every 29er I tried, I preferred the 27.5 model or equivalent. For example, a top spec wyte s-150 and middle spec t-130, I preferred the t-130.

All the 29ers I’ve tried have been sluggish in tight singletrack, reluctant to turn.

The light carbon wheels on the Pro Race might have been a factor but the Jeffsy 29 is the most agile and fun 29er I’ve tried. It honestly didn’t feel like a 29er at all. Apart from the ease at which it climbed and the speed it gathered.

My current bike is a 27.5, my next week be a 29er Jeffsy.

*disclaimer – I’m 6ft 4in so a 29er makes sense for me, if you’re short it might not be right for you.

But do you not think it would have been the same situation? You’d have found the 27.5 even better?

Anyone happen to try a carbon Jeffsy in both 27.5 and 29. Quite fancy one but having only owned 27.5 bikes thats feeling the safer bet. Plus the 10% discount on that model helps

I’ve been looking forward to this for a while. Always been fascinated by what/how it happened. Watched it twice last night. Really wishing away the time to watch the next episode

I’ve sold 4/5 cars over past 6 years and although I’ve always advertised on eBay classifieds and autotrader, every single sale has been through eBay

I’ve tried quite a lot. Proper coffee machine which i never really got a brew I enjoyed and often forgot to clean which turned it into an inconvenient device. Then tried dolce gusto which I returned as it was so poor I concluded it was faulty. (Prob 5-6 years ago so may be better now). Then tried a tassimo machine which produced a nice coffee. The Costa range of pods were very good and enjoyed the latte. Only issue was the cost of pods. This lime scaled up over a couple of years and for the past couple of years I’ve been running a nespresso machine. Leaps and bounds above anything else I’ve tried. It’s a £200 unit with milk frothier built in and it’s made me a perfectly consistent 2 shot latte/kind of flat white every morning for the past 2 years. I enjoy it more than any coffee from a starbucks or costa type cafe and costs me 66p. If it broke today I’d go straight down the shops and buy another. Mine is branded magimix I believe. I pick up 10 sleeves when passing nespresso shops and I’m so boring now I just buy the same purple pods every time. L’or pods are okay, aldi ones also but being plastic sometimes jam. Recently picked some emergency costa ones up as I was low on supplies and they make a superb drink

As above;

Hopton is awesome, as is Eastridge. Long Mynd, stiperstones, some good bits on the Wrekin, cannock chase is pretty good for the lack of elevation it has. Love LLandegla but that’s more like 1hr 20 away.

Interesting thread. My 2p worth is if you’re making over payments make aure there isn’t a savings account with a higher interest rate than your mortgage.

Nationwide do a regular savings account which offers 5%. My advice would be if you meet the criteria, open one and pay into it each month and then pay the lump sum to your mortgage… along with that 5% interest 😉

The problem with anything with interest rates over 2.1% is that they limit how much you can save and pay in. The nationwide saver is a 12 month term only which you’re limited to £3000 and earns £81 in interest so unless they let you have lots of accounts isn’t really Earning much

Member
How ??

More like WHY ?

Stick overpayments in your Pension and ISA and make more money than you save.

With interest rates so low pension and isa make very little. Over the next 10 years, my £500 overpayment will save me £23500 in interest charges. I’d never earn that much in any isa or pension account

I’ve just signed onto the nationwide 10 year fixed after my 4 year fixed ended. (Actually saving £30 a month) I’m allowed to overpay 10% of the original mortgage amount per year.

Interest rates are very likely to rise over the coming years(unless we no deal and economy takes an age to recover). Each 0.25 base rate rise equates to a £20 a month increase on my mortgage. Analysts expect the base rate to get back to 2.5% over the next 5 years which would increase my monthlies by £160.

I have 20 years left and overpaying by £500 a month will have my mortgage gone 1 month after my fixed rate is up so is what I’m doing

I’m an iPhone man but if I was coming back to android for £399 this is what I’d be going for

https://www.carphonewarehouse.com/huawei/p20.html#!colour=black&capacity=128GB&dealType=sf

Last of us remastered
Uncharted series
Rise of the Tomb raider
Gta V

I used to set our hive to heat pretty much only when me and the wife were home. What I noticed though is that if I keep the house around 17 deg when I’m out that the heating is hardly on. Pops on and off to keep temp up for tiny amounts of time. I Set around 20.5 for when we’re home and from 17 to 20.5 takes an hour or so to get it there. If I left the heating off and the house dropped to say 13/14 deg then from that point the heating was pumping at full power for hours to get back to 20.5.

Now the house always feels warm and according to my gas bill it’s costing me an extra £10 a month which is well worth it for me

I sold up my enduro bike a few years ago as I didn’t have time for the faff that’s involved in mountain biking and as much as I enjoyed the fast bits, you spend a massive amount of time grinding away for that bit of speed to make it all worth it.

I’m now in the mind set I want to start mountain biking again next year. I however want to do it purely for fun, and after having a blast on an e bike it blew me away how quick and fun it was. I could go for a blast round degla, enjoy the ups and downs and be home before lunch with plenty of energy to enjoy the rest of the day.

I run before work every morning, ride a road bike and eat healthily so mountain biking doesn’t need to tick the exercise box for me.

Im certain in the next 5 to 10 years they will replace the majority of pedal bikes

I’ve barely played a video game in the past year and I’m well into chapter 6 and hate to think how many hours it has stolen. What a game. Graphically stunning, great story that I can’t stop playing to see how it ends. Only frustration is slightly clumsy controls, made on of the chapter 5 missions really difficult but can Easily be forgiven.

Initially I was disappointed I didn’t buy it with an Xbox one x to enjoy it at its best but tbh it’s so impressive even on just a normal PS4 I don’t think I’ve missed out at all

think I’m going to give gtaV another play once I’ve got bored of this

As above JLR products seems to be bottom of pretty much every reliability survey which has put me off some of the good lease and pcp deals.

I did also think Japanese cars were reliable but it seems the British made nissans hover bottom of the charts also

https://www.whatcar.com/news/2018-what-car-reliability-survey/n17816

I’ve managed to stay interested by it although it hasn’t blown me away like gta5 did on the PS4. Graphically it’s great but I find it’s all a bit slow and Barron. Maybe progress will open up more but it’s not bad just not as good as gta

Just get an estate car. I drive at 2017 150 highline for work and it’s an awful thing. Noisy, thirsty and really slow. Whilst I can appreciate its about as good as vans get, any car from the last 15 years is more refined, nicer finished and better to drive. Yes they look quite nice tarted up but would never own one unless there were no other options

Nice review. Had a cube 160 a couple of years ago which I loved but moved to a roadie due to lack of time. I fancy hitting some trail centres again and the canyon spectral cf8 is top of my list. Have you done a detailed review on that bike as it ticks a lot of boxes for me. Only reservation is I’m smack between a medium and large and can’t get a sit on one

I left for similar reasons. More expectation, less staff to do the job, no pay rise in 5 years. Couldn’t carry on in the end. No, no paycut. Working extra 8-10 hours a week so picking up a chunk more but with travel my days are longer and my costs are higher. Luckily the wife has a good job so I’m lucky I don’t need to work which gives me the luxury to give it a try. If work goes a bit dry then I’ll enjoy some biking

I’ve just done exactly the same. 36 and had been doing a bit of carpentry on and off for a mate over the past few years whilst working full time in retail management since I left college. End of last year he offered to employ and train me up and I decided it was time to give carpentry a try, quit my job of 18 years, kitted myself out with £4k of tools and had my first xmas off since I was a teenager. It’s a hell of a change but the freedom, variation and reduction in stress has been mind blowing. It’s not all roses, the weather and the fact my first big project has had me outside since jan has left me frozen, soaked and muddy. I’m assured it’s never usually this cold and have high hopes for the summer months when I’ll be outside in shorts and t shirt soaking up the sun.  Every day Is a school day and look forward to a time when I’m not doing things for the first time and can look at a job and feel less stressed about it. Hard work now will pay off in the future as it should all get easier and easier

One of my all time faves.  Weirdly it almost disappointed at the cinema but blew me away on blu ray.

Love the music, the above video has left me realising my lack of talent

Both mine and the wife’s car autofold but I rarely folded them in in the past. My wife likes them because she knows if they’re folded the cars are locked

I use a dewalt laser level with a 6ft tripod off amazon. Awesome bit of kit but would need to put it on top of something to reach curtain rail height as cannot be pointed upwards more than 3 deg

If you’re an iPhone fan it’s the first time since the 6 that upgrade has been worthwhile. I’ve gone from a 7 plus the X and it’s an incredible bit of kit. I fell firmly into the remorse category when I upgraded my 2 years old 6 plus to the 7, apart from battery life there was little else worthy of the upgrade.

The X on the other hand has really impressed. Feels as small as the 7 but the screen is as big as the 7 plus. The oled display pops off the screen and it looks like there is no glass on the display it’s so clear. Face id was a concern for me but is actually far quicker than a finger print reader and after swiping up instead of pressing a home button it is both quicker and more intuitive. After using it for a few minutes you realise this is the beginning of the end of the home button on the iPhone but definatlely a change for the better. Build quality and the feel in the hand is that of a device almost justifying it’s crazy price tag. It really is a master piece. The notch is actually quite useful in use and quite a nice touch for displaying the info it does. Speaker is louder, camera is better and the animated emojis are very impressive. As you can see, i’m smitten, it’s a massive step forward for the iPhone. Pricing is crazy but then that’s the consequence of the brexit pound and apple thinking it’s acceptable to ask the same amount of pounds as dollars. .

https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-iroko-2-2017-mountain-bike-EV275644?esvt=52838-GOUKE2078192&esvq=&esvadt=999999-0-1146818-1&esvcrea=166222721919&esvplace=&esvd=c&esvtg=aud-302411052180:pla-303396704584&esvo=EV275644-M-BLK&esvaid=50080&gclid=CjwKCAjwqcHLBRAqEiwA-j4AyM91JR1e5Pn-H-3UI5ZMWff44RzRLqC-gE1C7ZY2GnpP5ob_etdPcBoC7_sQAvD_BwE

I’ve got an iroko 4 after i realised my carbon 160 bikes weren’t getting the use they deserved. This bike is an absolute riot. Slack, long and well equipped. Smooth welds, internal cables and won a load of awards in the mountain bike mags

I’m pretty converted now with shimano 685 with 785 levers (I believe) really nice modulated power, don’t have to worry about over heating rims on descents, silent in operation. Unaffected by wet weather and no dirty rim mess you get from calipered brakes in wet conditions. Frame looks a bit cleaner without them too. No going back for me but not the game changer they were for mountain bikes, just a nice evolution in performance. Just got some nice zipp carbon rims which have turned out to be a noticeable upgrade. Have been absolutely maintenance free and I’m still on original pads after 3k and 140mm discs are easily big enough