6 days to go yet Steve old bean - someone's holding out for a spectacular grand finale .

"Neuadd Arms Hotel" - last concert of the late great Lord Sutch. Still trying to pluck up courage to enter the MTB Bog Snorkelling Championships. Anybody had a go?!

Indeed! Have had the honour of shaking JPJ's hand. Unfortunately the magic didn't rub off onto mine. Obscure historical stuff for pop pickers: I'm into early 60's instros - ceiling-high in LPs/singles here - particularly the legendary Jet Harris who was of course the original punk rocker 20 years ea...

That's an ace post Frog . Conjures up all sorts of reflections. I can just picture those two slimes gazing rapturously across the marsh into each others eyes(?) and thinking "in ten billion years...."...... Sadly in my case I think evolution's gone backwards .

Nah, but 'twas an excellent guess and nuffin stopping visiting it anyway :smile:. Yeah, Led Zep 3 might have to be the soundtrack for the event. That's assuming one isn't going in the other direction of course, or even needs a soundtrack other than the one provided by Mother Nature. I'd posit that t...

Good for you MaM - please can you let one of your drivers know that Leighton Buzzard has run out of those posh stoneground rustic loaf things? Mrs Perrin is giving me an earful to find one, but these GRs are much more interesting. Maybe our little crowd can make up a route on the day, finger in the ...

Some Christmas crackers there Stu!

Bedd a brecwast - got the bedds sorted, and one of our favourite brecwast spots is en route. What's not to like

<annoying school-marm voice>"make sure we don't give away any GRs on here people" .

Nice one gents. Curry and rhubarb crumble makes for an interesting gourmet experience! Custard or ice-cream? (*) Only a couple of regulars left now I reckon. You planning on the NYE cliffhanger then Bob?

(*) or both obviously! (**)
(**) with the crumble not the curry. Oh I dunno though...

or his bear necessities....

. I'm just one small eccentric cog in the many who make This Place much greater than the sum of its parts, albeit as you say possibly with tongue inserted in cheek more often than most . Thanks for a great year everyone, and wishing you all the best for '19.

"cold, Scottish winter". Insulation:

SxRlicR by Reg, on Flickr

Apologies if I'm misunderstanding, but isn't the mat doing that job admirably already with its R4.4? If you're tarp-only, reckon there's nowt wrong with a bit of tyvek/polycryo bunged down first to keep things clean and tidy though - but probably that's just me being needlessly house(tarp)-proud :sm...

"grim northerner" - who are you thinking of then? :wink: Oh, and with reference to Mrs BDS's less-than-impressed demeanour, that reminds me of the time when Myself/Herself were in polite society (sounds unbelievable for me I know) and the bikepacking subject came up and Mrs Perrin was aske...

Fun it certainly was Steve! Thanks partly to you of course :smile:. Patently we're totally unhinged, but yes it's a great way to experience the passing of the seasons at close hand, as well as exploring places you might not otherwise have gone to (I mean, Workington ? :smile:). Not an easy gig reall...

:YMPARTY: :-bd :YMPARTY: :YMAPPLAUSE: #:-S :YMHUG: :YMPARTY: to everyone who got through it! If those chaps over in Fatfighters can do stats and analyses and things, so can we! I reckon 45 contestants started, or proposed to start, the game back in January. About a quarter managed January and then s...

All the best questions are strange :smile:. Unless you have some interesting bedding arrangements, presumably you'll have no insulating air trapped between the ground and the sheet or the sheet and your body so no help there. Can't see it doing much against conduction - it's usually 0.15mm thick so ...

Stu's kindly bequeathed me the last of the line from the Exclusive BBB Badge And Sticker Collection. I might wrap them in tissue paper, lay them down in the loft, and await the inevitable megabucks auction of collectors' items in a few years time. Alternatively I may stick 'em on the bike and ceremo...

A good contender PB. Loads of cracking routes to get there as well, and spots. There's another well-known one at Dyffryn Ardudwy but that might be pushing it for an overnighter. I found a very interesting report about these type of sites around Stu's area - there's loads of them, but mainly round ba...

"playful tumble every now and again for no other reason than pleasure" - I keep asking Mrs Perrin for one of those but to no avail :wink:. Actually, am interested to hear you say that, because I quite frequently wheel the bag out onto the bed at home and just lie in it for 5 minutes or so,...

Yeah tried the schnozzle-as-pillow ploy a while ago - it was like resting your head on a mini water-bed! Most un-nerving. Couldn't get it to hold air overnight either. I've tried all sorts of pillow ideas - clothes-in-stuffsac didn't work for me, hence wouldn't work inside schnozzle either. The Expe...

Dead good that is 'Wind . Even got the sheet ice and everything. Can't be the "Another WB" mob though cos you wouldn't have been able to see the bike at all at that distance in the fog .

"Black country lads ? You'll be lucky to see it at all"

"it doesn't look the best though" - can't be any messier than my duct tape bottle cage! Then again, function over form. 13g cage plus a 14g 500ml plastic bottle (yes I do re-use it, a year so far). Oh, and 500g for the water of course :wink:. Never quite followed why "sports" wat...

Ta chaps, nice to compare notes. I can feel the urge to do another kit "weigh-in" now :wink:. Might do it for WE. My sleeping bag drybag also has a down hat in it but that's all. Summer sleeping bag goes in 8L or even 5L drybag. Rest of bedroom goes in a separate 8L bag whatever the season...

I see MaM is rightly tickled with his lovely new sleeping bag - love the colours Stu :smile:. Made me think again about how one transports one's potentially life-saving night-time cocoon, bearing in mind it's also probably one of the Big 3 expensive purchases. Equally applies to quilts of course, al...