S-Westerly

Hmm, Port au Prince, Haiti before the earthquake was pretty poor, wouldn't like to guess now. Pointe Noire Congo with the dead bodies wafting up and down on the tide was quite a low light as well. Paradip, Karachi, Caracas now, and any number of other hell holes cross my mind.

Basically he just said "Alexa play fart song". And away she went. I suggest discretion if trying it out as I was telling my son and when I said the magic words it started playing.

Oooh, on a planetary level there's much, much worse than Croydon.

Serves the smug bugger right!

My youngest grandson gets Alexa to play the fart song. What is it with 8 year old boys and farts that reduces them to giggling heaps?

I haven't been 60 kg since I was about 12. Even at my fittest when I could do an army route March in full kit I weighed 83 kg and there wasn't any fat on me then. Now sadly I'm about 106 kg but down from my worst of 4 years ago.

I only wish.....

Having happily filtered through stationary motorway traffic I'm not about to give it up anytime soon. I don't commute so I'm less comfortable doing it in heavy town traffic but will do it on occasions just not so dementedly as some loons on 125's and scoots.

Anyone fancy the Iron Butt Challenge? One way of finding out how comfy your bike is. Don't fancy it in the UK as our road system doesn't really lend itself to huge daily mileages. European autoroutes might be doable.

Yeah not good. Cats aren't particularly good with roads.

Get a cat.

I filter and if my handlebars fit so do the panniers. It is wide though, a smidge under 1 metre.

I beg your pardon?

Then you'll die of the plague.

Don't suppose telling you to put your head between your knees and kiss your arse goodbye would have been good for morale.

Good grief......

What? Sorry to see XTreme go as I found him quite entertaining even if we disagreed more often than not.

All we need is a plague! Ah hang on we've got one of them already.

Ha! "They" will track you with your implanted chip and when you think you are going home you'll materialise in the local nick.

If you are riding through town traffic and filtering is your thing you're likely to make better progress but I doubt there'd be much fun in it. For all the reasons above take a car if you can.

That's why we have a joint account and everything goes into it. If I'm away my wife needs to arrange everything which she does- buys houses, cars, etc. Most of the money is stashed wherever she gets the best return. She keeps a file with updates so should she pop her clogs I've a chance of finding it. We also both have accounts of our own with about a grand in for "stuff" so there's no " you spent how much on another fishing rod?!" etc.

My mate has one and despite being a short arse swears it's the comfiest bike he's owned.

Our car is a kind of halfway house on the way to being smart. At the moment it is decidedly dim. It scans road side signs and advises the driver as to the prevailing speed limit. Unfortunately it seems to be dyslexic as it regularly informs us that the limit is 90 or 120 mph. It has been known to read phone numbers on the back of trucks etc. A long way to go before I'd trust a car on autopilot.

Well done all, and even keeping it fairly civil despite all the stresses and strains folks have to be feeling. A ray of light in fairly unremitting gloom. Especially this morning when we have freezing fog.

I'd not want to pile that sort of interest rate grief on to the younger generation as they have a fair pile of crap to deal with already. 5% though, that'd do me.