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Served a consultant from the conference tonight who drinks Laphroaig with diet coke. Nuff said. Angry no 2) The conference, (though linked to my continued employment) it's been my task tonight to clear it and set up for Sunday's wedding and whilst doing so I've been reading the total wank they've been 'learning' for the week. Reaferms that the NHS doesn't need yet more investment; it needs to stop such bullshit as funding outsourced private sector 5 day expenses paid residential jolly's in Lake District hotel's (quote: Orr tis' a shame this is the last one of these for a bit, really like doing these... /endquote) , and spend some money on some more minions so they can get on treating sick people - but everyone involved knows they're on Easy Street and turkey's don't vote for Christmas. Having a meeting about tuesday's meeting that's going to discuss the meeting next week - that's where our taxes get squandered people.

As the quote goes "There are three kinds of lies - lies, damn lies and then there are statistics"

You're on a hill right? To me it looks like your lawn has been battered up / graded like that to promote fall toward the bottom left of the photo you posted and the hedge you just ripped out was the natural drainage. So when you build a pad for the car to go on you'll need aco style strip drains, will you not? (Having not been stood on the job) My plan of attack would be scrape your lawn til level or 8in depth, whatever is deeper, within reason (which should expose that man hole nicely), bottom out, lay a concrete blind (a watery 3 3 2 mix (sharp, building, cement, respectively) floated about 5 to 6 in thick) having shuttered off provision for drainage at the house side with a sacrificial piece of skirting / 6 bi 2 or similar. Float in some fall so you don't get sumping/puddles when it's pissing rain and finish with concrete garden edging. Free laid paving slabs in colour of choice on top to tart the slab up optional. I'd just lay leftover hardcore/Mot in the strip provision and work on the idea that a French drain into a cheekily bored hole into the side of that manhole will be enough. With one of these 1 tonners on hire each process/stage would be about a 4/6 beer job (solo) and I'd aim to have it (mostly?) done across a bank holiday weekend. I'd be of a mind to grub out your hedge properly, trench out and lay more Mot int' hole to catch the fall and finish the job nicely.

I hope that's true but there's time yet yessir. Then you've still DPD to negotiate... If you've ever worked on the roads (former delivery van crew here) you'll know them lads don't give a fuuuuuuuck, least of all on a Friday afternoon ducking round traffic cos of their impossible scheduling. "Backroads bomz fo daze init bro"

Yarp. I think that might end up being a nice bit of Tory serendipity (at best), yeah. Sadly it's really quite easily to imagine the lightbulb moment going off in some arse licking junior minister's head and said bellsnif, gleefully seat bounce moshing with the arms going like flappy bird before running into the next room proclaiming they've thought of an idea (mandatory 'this'll be good for you' sticks) that means one of their Thatcherite wet dreams is one step closer. That's not forgetting how much ££££ they're mates would make too. SEO? Lack of talent? Cock on demographical research for a daytime "news" magazine show.? I've worked with a number of peeps who would have you know Morgan's charades are the way of getting too'ver twooth.

Don't worry my mate had this summer/early autumn 2020 with his big dog, so much so that he missed his special edition summer season build. I won't air the saga here but regular requests for a sit rep and an eventual (softly spoken, sympathetic, well tempered) round of f**ks got him a bike at his house. There were signs of, not rushed, but more of all hands on deck type affair in the way his bike came too - it felt like they'd got the tea boy to fit the tyres so the bike made the courier for example, clues like his rims were scratched front and rear in the same manner at the 9oclock position like the tyres had been a fight through bad technique etc. His guide RE brakes had long lever travel too - we speculate this was from shortening hoses or swapping them from euro spec to uk spec without festidious bleeding afterwards, so on and so forth. Suffice to say it left both of us a tad salty (I put him onto Px/On one after my to this day positive and continuous good luck with them) I own a px frame set and various bits and bats of clothing and still spend with them FWIW as the parts and shipping peeps seem to be on point, the customer liaison people maybe require more training, let's say. Edit: To caveat the above this was posted t'other day and my bike shop owning long time accuantence gave me the skinny on lead times when I ordered a headset from him. Last we spoke he had 4 and 5 figure £ sums all over the place at various vendors; some of his stock was in Felixstowe on that ship that banjaxxed the Suez canal and customs were being glacial and he told me that since Michelin make their cycle tyres in Cambodia and at that point Cambodia was under a martial law type lockdown curfew thingy, it'd be quicker to grow the rubber myself than replace my endurance pro4's with the latest incarnation - so the above is said with empathy. The bike industry is hurting at the minute and the Ribble example or the character defence linked articulates this pretty well.

His dismissive, patronising, arrogant, absolutist, closed shop thinking tone of "I"m right and your wrong: We know it all and you don't: I have decreed therefore thy will be done, ser'there " articulates one of the (my) greatest irritations that has been born out.of the last 2yrs. Thus far no one is the righteous, only history and a good dose of hindsight will decide that. S'wat pisses me off about the whole thing. History is also not on the side of industry hurriedly foisting chemical or material elements into contact with the mass populus either now, is it? Only later on to then become totally absolvent of whatever calamity has occured with the midst of time and they "one hundred percent; totally did not cause na ah not us mate"... EDIT: also clap clap to the lad to have the brass to stick his head above the parapet to call bull as he sees it.

I'll change this to not living off farm foods or iceland processed frozen chicken et al and putting in 50mile shifts on the road bike so as to offset burgers, pints of stout and drams of the best I can afford as opposed to your passive veganism but yeah, this. Said totally not a mandated vaccine is bullshit of the highest order. "Vaccine Apartheid" should be railed against at all costs. Big brother will power grab in insignificant increments and never relinquish it's/their subsequent power, coercion and control. If this was a domestic abuse case then we, the people, would be in a hostel with the kids by now. To complete the analogy, our abusive overlords/certain world and state level figures, where applicable, should be sporting a John Maclaine vest and telling the police they're cnuts because he's cuffed in the riot van and they won't pass him that open fosters from over there. Anyone pro mandate or cut the anti vax cnuts (i.e. anyone wanting discourse from their absolutist train of thought) from society, especially the "imprison them" crowd, should be ignored as the idiot they clearly are. I'd cheerfully stand that type on a beach with a freshly poured pair of concrete shoes.

I'm a browser/lurker rather than contributor these days but it's part of passing dead time whilst taking an hour for 3am ish 'lunch' on nights. Anyway so I've a question: When I come to TF on mobile the pages don't scale correctly, it's like I need to pinch zoom outward but I can't, that's it - that's 100% scale. Homepage is like 130% zoom and aligned center left - I can see the topics, the profile pic of the last poster and the date they posted it, but right of that is cropped off There's a button to sort switch formats when browsing topics after clicking on a sub heading that works round this problem but if there is one on the homepage I don't see it Also when I click on the date of the last post in a topic, the link works but takes me to the opening post not the most current one like it would on my computer. Is this a me thing or is it a board code thing? using duckduckgo browser on Android v11 (I think) Phone is a Nokia 2.4. Clicking desktop site in options changes nothing. TA

Hell, never would have said I'd had the frameset a year but I've just come here to check and it's a year to the date... Anyways this is what the kaff had come to look like as of earlier this month, taken quickly in the ~15mins before I had to clock in at work, with 'er fully loaded for a post wedding stopover followed by riding home after the breakfast shift the morning after. What I did not know at this juncture is that I'd serve til gone 2am and then get on it with some of the crew and the keen stragglers from the wedding before a 20min nap, shower and change and served brekkie at 7.30 with all of us still half cut. The circa 25 near pan flat mile ride home that afternoon took me over 3 hrs time in motion X-) Ah, hospitality...

So I've done many a revision since this was last updated; wheels and tyres, 8 speed 11 - 32 cassette, dual pivot extra deep drop brakes with cartridge pads, pedals, bars, stem, some homebrew lock on grips, Avid SD 1.9 levers & a modified Triban threaded to threadless steerer tube conversion spring to mind plus more. This is the version we've settled on for the longest as it works, though we're still working through my stash of seats to find one, if any, that truly works for her ≥ two hours elapsed time, and I'm still chasing her hand going numb through trapped circulation. It'll no doubt not stay like this but that's for later in time. Mam would appear to (keep) surpris(ing) herself at her capability [that I knew was there, it just needed unlocking - she has surprised me on the occasion or two I should add though]. I'm just going to add pics in no particular order from this point on. A special thank you/ show of sincere appreciation to @gage-mann for donation of the tan wall 28mm Tofu tyres to the cause. Combined with the early 90's Exage hubs/Vuelta Airline v4 30mm deep rims I snaffled with a large dollop of good eBay fortune they look f**kin sick. Connor If you read this the bag & pedals are 'yours' too. When my "situation" gets right side up I owe you both alcohol and/or a round of ice cream. Every time I click my Bryton into the mount on this thing I can't help but raise a rye smile of the ridiculousness of having a quarter turn on a bike that looks like this.

Oh, right. I was under the impression (wrongly it would seem) that the aforementioned were drawing a wage, as in, did bikes for a dayjob, exclusively for BC - That means BC's PR machine is working just swell then, right? Assume you are correct, then their [the rider's] talent vs support ratio is worse then I was suggesting? The talent is greater than the received perks [of being on team GB]/the scales are still tipped against the worker (rider)? You have 2 world leaders in a subject, who's stock is potentially still undervalued/at a massive disparity to say, Jason and Laura Kenny? These two's stock value is based squarely on multiple gold round things, granted. And I still stand by that the old farts of the funding bodies and Olympic committees wouldn't be allowing BMX (either discipline) or pre-teen skateboarding girls houseroom, if it weren't for attempting to be a trendy wendy and the Tiktok hits or such like. If the talent gets recompensed on a proportionate level as part of going along with the big corporate machine then great, but I'd wager the disparity is there on a similar level to Marquez and Rossi accruing :ahem: amount of monies in a salary basis and most road racers feeling they are doing well/"getting there now boy's!!" on a semi pro basis. Sub Optimal. For context of my POV: Dainese flew in Mr. Rossi (who even in my list comes in the top 25 GOAT) to the TT one time for a guided lap - They were shown round on showroom fresh crossplane R1's @ a steady away 6/7 tenths and on return VR was quoted as saying "F**K THAT. You people are f**king nuts - crayzee people... So the men/women idolised by millions earn the bank, and the people with a high probability of them being more talented than all of 'em are working class heroes working multiple gigs to fund the circus. Graham Obree might be a good cycling pop reference for this point BIO HERE Non cycling but similar in nature would be Peter Williams and his monocoque John Player Norton

Like Track and Field you mean? Yeah, there are - that's what British Cycling and Sport England are supposed to be for - and historically they haven't given any unless there is a photo op of the CEO stood next to the Olympic gold medal and the "supported" athlete is in the works. In a what i'd suggest is a highly cynical attempt to be down wit de kids init - British cycling have got Alex Coleburn and Charlotte Worthington on full time gigs - potentially under rewarded and again, because there is high chance of yielding a gold shaped return on their investment. They are a good example of what I was on about above - you want the stars to get paid but it comes with baggage of all shapes. I always question the motives of brands sponsoring sport and/or women/girls because I suspect, British Cycling sponsoring Messrs Coleburn Worthington included, that it is just a big ol' bout of band wagon jumping or worse in the case of girls/women in niche but hip new sports [used ironically], nowt but woke quota filling. Sky Brown for example, has all the marketing boxes ticked and the "aww isn't she such a brave little sausage" story to go with that means she nowt more than a near the top of the hour "...and finally" circus side show to those people [on breakfast TV]. To bring it back on topic the upshot is that big money (energy drink sponsors aside - even they only want trendy overnight superstar viral tiktok sensations) has no idea what mtbing truly is and it's probably still not of a long enough established, matured, dare I say - sophisticated sport to warrant say, a public sector funded TV contract like the Tour de France has. We're having an upturn in frequency of strongly worded 'discussions' with the upsurge of post lockdown dog walkers and public woodland users :cough: pond scum karens :cough: 'round our way at the minute (...and it's not gonna get better as the sun comes back) and it always reminds me of the opening scenes of chainspotting where Rob Warner is explaining the nuanced, land "issues" - that was filmed the thick end of 25yrs ago and yet still things on two wheels are utterly abhorrent to the all of a sudden countryfied general populous. Dogshit bags hanging out of trees, nitrous cans everywhere, sheep worrying bullmastiffs and erosion that somehow <300 bicycle users a month vs >2500 pairs of feet cause - all that is OK and "it's youn'uns on bikes that are't problem" EDIT: My point being that perceived public opinion sways which way sponsor cash goes. It also insights this kind of carry on. Not the 1st time I've heard of stuff like wire across trails because some jam butty eating rambler thinks it their countyside and not mine or yours. Cnts. https://road.cc/content/news/horrific-medieval-trap-mtb-trail-near-newcastle-282857

Team Sky's budget was widely reputed to be 20mil GBP a year. I think Ineos are budgeted to piss though ~20mil euro a year. Astana, FDJ, Movestar, Lotto Jumbo/Lotto Soudal/jumbo visma, Canyon SRAM et al reputedly have budgets in the 8 - 15 mil Euro range IIRC. It's all a boys club where wallet is used as an appendage - yeah you want the starlets of your chosen sport or discipline thereof to get paid / maketh the bank but too much wedge sloshing aroond ruins/corrupts/derails sport(s) quickly and irreparably imo - I'd sight anything the FIA, FIM or Dorna are involved in as examples. Anyone remember Matt Prior's pet project ONE PRO cycling? Wikipedia Linkety Aye well it flew high but crashed like the Hindenburg Link to tactful press statement when they met the kill one club esk glass ceiling that is the pro conti circus - I remember mr. Prior chucking quips around at the time like "It became obvious you'll not get in without 10 mil euro/year, gratuities and 5 yr obligation" or similar. Essentially if you aren't one of the boys with an account in the caymans and your money going through Luxembourg and a "shh don't tell anyone" fund in UBS Geneva then you will/your team will never progress beyond the races that the Astana's of this world snobbishly look down on [eg. Tour of Britain, national champs, national points series] - that's how it appears to me anyway.

So the job's just come back up again with a different, newly worded, seemingly more professional advert [The original interviewer, and to a point the process, was bewilderingly inept). Seems the mythical grommets that could be bitched around for <=£6.70/hr either didn't fancy it (I trolled the indeed HTML for info and, quote, "<10 applicants") or the flaky college age messiah they did take on for the rush start was about as reliable as Northern rail. Still, as I must be a glutton for punishment/totally f***ing daft I've put in for it again, essentially to see what if any response I get.