Nervously excited* Friday here, I'll be rolling Wales-wards later as I'm booked for my MTB Leadership assessment at Coed-Y-Brenin tomorrow. Wish me luck!

*In a good way

Good luck!

Yep, wish you well 'Legs. Did my CTC one yonks ago and the Brit Cycling one after that (the first L2 MTB course they delivered, at Whinlatter). The BC one was far more nerve-wracking and intensive as I recall.

Just thankful I'm not on the A65 heading to the Lakes: 3km of queueing traffic to get to J36 on the M6 then it was pretty solid, maybe a max of 5 seconds between vehicles, all the way to Settle with standing traffic for a couple of km to get into Ingleton. THEN, there's lights at building works in Long Preston - it took me 20mins to get through going eastwards and the queue heading west was at least three times as long plus there was traffic coming in on the A682 which could be just as long Probably at least a 2hr journey instead of the 40mins or so it normally takes.

Saw the Wonderstuff at Liverpool O2 last night. Hilarious mosh-pit of folks who should probably know better (and who's knees will not thank them later), me being one.

Still on a lovely post banging tunes, student-days reminder high

Our gig rowing club is heading for the beach tonight. Beer and picnic is packed but the budgie smugglers are staying at home.

Cheeky Monkey wrote: ↑Fri Jun 17, 2022 5:31 pm Saw the Wonderstuff at Liverpool O2 last night. Hilarious mosh-pit of folks who should probably know better (and who's knees will not thank them later), me being one.

Still on a lovely post banging tunes, student-days reminder high

An interview with Himself I listened to last year which I found entertaining enough.

https://penfriend.rocks/miles

Don't know what to do with old wheels?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uffgRu3cF0

Might be of interest to our resident bowyer.

Calling Stu....

Bearlegged wrote: ↑Fri Jun 17, 2022 2:02 pm ...my MTB Leadership assessment...

Absolutely aced it. Feeling very proud of myself. Thanks for all the good wishes!

Bearlegged wrote: ↑Sat Jun 18, 2022 9:44 pm

Bearlegged wrote: ↑Fri Jun 17, 2022 2:02 pm ...my MTB Leadership assessment...

Absolutely aced it. Feeling very proud of myself. Thanks for all the good wishes!

Congratulations

Brilliant, well done

Nice one Bear. Next obvious question - apart from the satisfaction in itself of having achieved it - what are you planning to do with it?

Bit of a mix really.
A big driver for me is to create more diversity in cycling and the outdoors, so I've offered to help out with the Peak Gravel Gang and MTB Colour Collective for starters.
There's also the prospect of a bit of commercial work alongside my regular employment.

I know, 3 days til Friday but. So the saga of Mrs P's motor is finally sorted. Maybe an interesting experience for future reference for anyone. Some fool crashed into the back of me when I was going to care for my parents (about the only thing I use a motor for) the day before our hols, for which she wanted to take the motor for some misguided reason. Insurance Co agreed obv not my fault but couldn't provide a hire car "because there aren't any". Luckily motor just about driveable despite huge dents in rear. Got it home, fixed the hatch lock, gaffer tape and cabletied everything together, checked lights etc worked. Then went on hols, all fine. Wasted half hols sorting insurance out. Insurance engineers wanted to assess it; sorry can't, on hols. I described damage over phone. They rang back later, forget engineer, from what you said we'll write it off. Arg! They asked me "How much is it worth?" I tried for £1200, and amazingly he agreed despite disagreeing. I said I wanted to try to keep it on the road. So he flogged it back to me for £100! Got home, sent for MOT not getting my hopes up. Just passed without any faults. Goodness knows how. So got her motor back, and we're now £1100 to the good, but a heavily modified back end to the bad. Main worrying moment was insurance company had told me we were fine to drive around 3rd Party Only until MOT done, but a letter had arrived at home over our hols saying we were in fact totally uninsured now!! That was a heart-stopping moment, but turns out the letter was incorrect.

Not interested in cars at all (*), so no problem with driving a 16 year old wreck around. At least we don't care if anyone scratches it . (Actually I have a theory that one should always scratch your own new car yourself to save getting depressed when some yob does it).

(*) Or football. Or golf. Or houses. Or video games. Or fitness. Or s@x (**). I'm basically not a standard issue male homo sapiens, which I'm at ease with.

(**) well OK, just the cars, football, golf, houses, video games, and fitness then.

RIP wrote: ↑Tue Jun 21, 2022 11:18 amOr s@x.

Not even Epic Sax?

Amazing what you can make out of baking foil! She'll catch her death in that get up.

Nah, keeps the heat in, like a survival blanket.

Found a Wildcat tapered dry bag that I thought I'd lost somehow up in Scotland I'd put it behind the driver's seat in the van and it had slipped halfway down so I couldn't see it. Cath had borrowed the van and moved the seat forward so it then dropped all the way to the floor. Being yellow it was easy to spot. That's £30 saved in not having to buy a new one

Hopefully cheery. Once I've finished up work wise (i.e. now) I'm going to get some stuff together, bung it on the straggler and head northish. I'm aiming for a BBQ on lower Speyside sometime tomorrow afternoon so will ride until dark o'clock, bivvy somewhere and then finish up. Weather looking variable as per normal after a week of sunshine but should be sunny tomorrow

whitestone wrote: ↑Fri Jun 24, 2022 1:53 pm That's £30 saved in not having to buy a new one

Ah, now, in the tortured logic which applies in RegWorld, this means you have actually got £30 that you wouldn't otherwise have had so you are fully entitled to spend that thirty quid on some sort of treat or bit of fun. I'd suggest an enormous box of Maltesers would be appropriate.

RIP wrote: ↑Fri Jun 24, 2022 3:00 pm

whitestone wrote: ↑Fri Jun 24, 2022 1:53 pm That's £30 saved in not having to buy a new one

Ah, now, in the tortured logic which applies in RegWorld, this means you have actually got £30 that you wouldn't otherwise have had so you are fully entitled to spend that thirty quid on some sort of treat or bit of fun. I'd suggest an enormous box of Maltesers would be appropriate.

At current rates £30 would get you a bag of ten

Hang on, make that nine.

Not been cheery or uncheery so far, sort of middling.

However, just been having a cup of tea and a little memory popped into my head - Right Said Fred! They drank loads of tea - six cups in fact - while shifting the unspecified heavy object in or out of a building, so I dug out my original Bernard Cribbins LP and gave it a spin.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9E-XoTNtFRw

All good clean gentle fun so let's hear what happened when he was trying to dig a hole...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8YCCauW8m0o

Talking of songs with satisfying little punchlines, the master was of course Jake Thackray, with his superbly idiosyncratic style of delivery, so I bunged his LP on afterwards as well. Bantam Cock....

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8pntmpp5kYk

Well they cheered me up anyway.

Reg, you've just reminded me of a Hole in the ground / Lust for life mashup. Fantastic it is but I can't find it - I'll keep looking.