S-Westerly

I used to think that too, but with the arrival of covid I have a slightly more pessimistic view of the future. "We're all doomed, doomed I tell ye".

Old Bank accounts are depressing. Particularly when interest rates were so high. Our first mortgage was 15% and after a year of paying the capital debt had decreased by something like £3. On the plus side the mortgage was only 35k. Of course now I have no mortgage and if interest rates were even 5% could retire comfortably. Instead they are a paltry 1% ! Bitter? Not much.

Same, joint account for everything we earn. All bills are paid by direct debit so the system basically looks after itself. Anything left over gets paid into the pension fund ( get that KiwiBob?)

I dunno, half of us are probably descended from Scandinavians. Maybe the more uptight ones came over here leaving their more adventurous brethren back home.

I suspect my 9 and 8 year old grandsons would love it as they are at the age when Willie waving is what it's all about. Personally I think I'll give it a miss.

Rode to Gloucester for a blood test. Weather was cold, roads were salty and all in all it wasn't a great deal of fun. At least there was no snow or sleet. Traffic was lighter than usual but not as light as lockdown 1. Lockdown fatigue?

Funnily enough I had pizza tonight but one made by my wife from scratch. Good thick base, lashings of tomatoes, good salami, plenty of onions, and loads of cheese with a few olives as garnish. Compared to the average takeaway it's like comparing an aged sirloin steak to a McD's burger.

So masochism is obviously still a thing in the UK? Husoi better keep clear, there's no telling what these weird buggers will get up to. Personally I'll stick with moderately large engined and comfortable bikes. Long past the time of enduring pain for fun. About 62 years past.

That's fine as far as it goes but if I exercise my right to not wear a helmet then have an accident resulting in me possibly needing expensive medical treatment and potentially lifelong support what right do I have to expect that to be funded by someone else?

We're just soft westerners, fortunately.

Thanks for the info. Can sort of see the coke argument as its like very weak phosphoric acid which is also not a bad cleaner for some metals.

Did you use salt water or cola as the liquid as I've seen both recommended albeit for boat chrome? I'm seriously considering some bots of my bike exhaust system chromed but not even sure if its possible.

I didn't know you could still rent videos, I thought they'd gone the way of the dodo and everyone streamed. As to garden centres, nurserymen lost millions collectively during lockdown 1. Growing plants isn't something you can put on hold and as a keen gardener I'm quite happy to go to a garden centre for the various odds and sods I need. I could buy them at Homebase which is also open but....

Do we ever stay on it?

At which point your 125 would be struggling to get up a hill and have all the whiz of an arthritic snail. May as well go on a bus.

Slowly and painfully would be my guess.

I believe its a statistic that most RTC's happen within 5 miles of a person's home. If that is the case it would indicate that familiarity with the road means jack.

Bit like politics really.

It's even higher in the USA where unbelievably to me some states don't mandate the wearing of helmets. Weird.

Doesn't matter if your ride is 50 feet or 50 miles. If some SMIDSY hits you wrong and he's speeding it's probably going to end up with you living your life as a vegetable. Helmets should be compulsory. The rest not so much, its personal choice.

Very rarely ride a bike in London. I collected my current bike from Vauxhall and rode it home. No problem in London. A sports bike though? I'd rather poke pins in my eyes!

It all depends how quickly our infamously sclerotic bureaucracy manages to roll out the vaccine programme. Right now I'd predict normality in about 2121 all going well.

If you're in a small boat and someone starts barfing loads of people feel like joining in. I've never been sea sick in my life on any size of boat or ship. One of my grandsons gets queasy but none of the rest of us. Among the living adults there's 3 serving seafarers and 2 former. Among the recently deceased (last 15 years or so) there's another 4. Proper seadogs us!

Sitting with a cask strength 12 yo whisky myself. Dry January can, along with veganuary go and f**k itself. A cold day in hell when I'm home and not able to have a drink if I want. Spend enough months dry aboard ship!

Down here it's not so bad. It's this constant freeze / thaw though. At least with snow you can see it and to a degree plan for it. Black ice is just horrible as its really hard to see early enough to do anything sensible about. I've written off a car and bent a bike thanks to unexpected black ice.