Steve_M

They do look amazing.

I enjoyed our week in Madeira. Mind, that was because we stayed away from the main centres of population and had a great time walking the Levadas. The bus ride back to Funchal from the Valley of the Nuns was a bit nerve wracking, mind.

Does Madeira count?

A point I made elsewhere.

I have, elsewhere, commented that the Labour Party are no threat to the current government because they have a tendency to self destruct. Too many factions, a much too “broad church” full of cliques.

It’s to quell dissent. The relevant section is very poorly worded and is open to interpretation (ie. abuse). Hopefully it will be tidied up on its way through the legislation process. I haven’t seen the relevant section but there’s something about causing financial harm, so if you decide to boycott an organisation you believe to be unethical you can be prosecuted. This probably will not affect us as individuals but if, say, an advertiser pulls their adverts from, say, the Daily Mail, for hate headlines, then they may well be liable. There is a group called “Stop Funding Hate” that lobbies advertisers to withdraw their adverts from publications that have a tendency to spread hate through misinformation. They will need to look carefully at their policies in the future.

About how long it takes to put a pair of gloves on.

Ah, the good old RTFM. Love it.

We’d written this year’s European tour off a while ago. We were hoping to revisit Switzerland and perhaps extend it out to five weeks by heading towards Greece. We haven’t had too much chance to explore this area since we moved 15 months ago, so a staycation it is, but with the advantage that we can visit lots of new-to-us places.

Unfortunately there wasn’t a category for “I don’t believe in this tribal bullshit”...

I recall that Varna Rd was the main place to find old doors. It may have changed as I moved out of Brum some years ago (and I was too young to actually make use of that information).

Finally found how to access videos on the wildlife camera. Unfortunately won’t load here as it’s a .AVI file. So I’ve put it on YouTube Badger

I’ve done a couple of Tom’s courses. Mad as a box of frogs, but knows his bike stuff.

Tom of i2i is a straight up guy. I’d go with his opinion, too.

Lime plastering done, so continuing making a stepped path down through the garden and staking the trees we planted last week. I know how to have fun.

The Fundenhall Rd in Norfolk is known as “cowpat alley”.

Agreed. Officious? That’ll be the traffic wardens then (I hasten to add that, as yet, most encounters I’ve had with traffic wardens have been ok).

The article suggests a minute.

Even idling while astride it is illegal. My question is less the concern about the bike getting stolen than the rider getting nicked.

before riding off? During an spare moment I remembered that a U.K. law was introduced recently where you could be fined if you leave your engine idling on a public road (definition, anywhere the pubic has access - that includes your ungated drive). So, leaving your bike running to warm up the engine, attended or not, would leave you open to a fine. https://www.confused.com/on-the-road/driving-law/fines-for-idling Is the ritual of warming an engine a hangover from old engines? I usually start the engine, put my gloves on and ride at low revs for the first couple of hundred yards.

Today I will be mostly lime plastering, finishing coats, a wall. But first comes essential journeys...

I saw a headline that, due to COVID, the four day week will now become more common. Would you have to change that to “I still like Thursdays “? My good lady changed her employment contract to work “10 days in 9”... the original contract being for 35hr weeks (yea, right, she was doing more like 50hr weeks) it changed to doing 70hrs in 9 days (what actually happened was she did the same number of hours per day but took every second Friday off ). It worked really well for her.

I’ve just ridden into Carlisle and back (essential travel ). Living in a “tourist” hotspot in the sticks you can guarantee there’s shite all over the road, and walkers, and cyclists, and motor homes with drivers who can’t judge the width of their vehicle ‘cos they drive it once a year mostly on motorways (pause for breath), and bikers and drivers who cut RH bends taking a “racing line”, and farmers with their tractors and horse boxes, and herding sheep down the road.

Absolutely. On track, where best lap times are the target. Saving 0.1 second per bend on the road is pretty pointless in my view. I’m generally of the “brake in a straight line, get your speed for the bend before turning in, slow in, faster out” opinion*. There is a place for going into a bend on a closed throttle - some tight downhill bends in the Alps spring to mind. I have experimented with trail braking on the road after watching the Bret Tkacs video on the subject and I felt no clear advantage. * and if you’ve misjudged it then you have some leeway for speed adjustment.

I’ll probably WhatsApp with one Norfolk nutter this weekend, too (my son lives in Aylsham).