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Finally back online; the landlord has kindly let me piggyback off their connection until I have my own sorted out.
 

pawl

Legendary Member
Warm, breezy and occasionally sunny here chez Casa Reynard.

I slept well, though it took me a while to drop off. Everything has just subsided to a general ache now rather than anything being ouchie hurty, although the bruise on my knee is quite spectacular. Nuts are spread out in the sun to dry, and the apples have been triaged and are spread out in some storage trays. The damaged ones (I picked a fair few of the windfalls) will be diverted into a crumble and the next batch of chutney.

It is Madam Poppy's 13th birthday today. I've taken a pork steak out of the freezer for the girls to share later. Popcorn does ok for a senior cat. Sure, she's lost a little bit of weight and she's a bit creaky these days, but she certainly hasn't lost any of her chutzpah and still rules the household with an iron paw. Love her to bits. :wub:

I plan on a quiet afternoon writing and watching the cricket.

Almost time for luncheon.

Hope you have recovered from your mishap of yesterday
 
Lovely luncheon of two slices of wholemeal toast*, one with ham, one with cream cheese, plus some cherry tomatoes, a nectarine, some grapes and two :cuppa:

* the new Warburtons sugar free loaf. Not worth it at the full whack of £1.20, it's near enough tasteless and nowhere near as nice as my usual mid-range Tesco own brand wholemeal. On sticker though, I'm a lot less fussy.
 
Forgot to mention, I spent a good chunk of yesterday evening talking my bookseller friend through how to replace the brake levers (and cables) on his bike.

The bike (bought secondhand) is one of the many flavours of late 80s / early 90s steel Raleigh MTBs - decent enough cromoly frame but bargain basement components. It came with those godawful plastic brake levers, so I got him a used pair of Shimano alloy ones that are compatible with cantilever brakes. In retrospect, I should also have got him a set of new cables and some decent brake blocks.

It's a shame he's over the other side of the country (Gloucester). It's far harder to try and explain via FB messenger than to actually knuckle down and tinker.
 
It's a shame he's over the other side of the country (Gloucester). It's far harder to try and explain via FB messenger than to actually knuckle down and tinker.

It's suprisingly difficult to explain how to set canti/v-brakes because it can come down to a couple of tips followed by "now keep faffing about with them until they go against the wheels with a nice thunk..." Oddly I managed this today on a rear brake, but the front stayed mildly squishy.
 
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It's suprisingly difficult to explain hoe to set canti/v-brakes because it can come down to a couple of tips followed by "now keep faffing about with them until they go against the wheels with a nice thunk..." Oddly I managed this today on a rear brake, but the front stayed mildly squishy.

We haven't actually managed to get that far yet... :blush:

He'd been trying to work out how to get the rather crimped cable back into the outer.

No experience with v-brakes here, but cantis, the biggie is the cable tension on the actual caliper - the bit that goes through the hooked hanger doodad at the end of the brake cable. A couple of mm either way can make such a BIG difference.
 

oldwheels

Legendary Member
Location
Isle of Mull
Dreadful weather currently. Wet and windy as forecast.
Went down to the pharmacy to collect some meds ordered over a week ago. Nowhere to park so just double parked on the street blocking off some touroid cars but if they complain they can go jump off the pier so far as I am concerned.
Strangely I was given some meds I had not requested but did not find out till back home. Need to enquire later whether this was surgery or pharmacy initiative as I got something I no longer use.

As a contrast to the poshish cyclists on Thursday there was also a guy in his twenties with a decent looking steel drop handlebar bike. He had long straggly not very clean looking hair, clothing in tatters with holes in the sleeves of his jersey and ragged trousers. Worse than shabby chic. Looked to be a regular cyclist by his handling of the bike which had what may have been camping gear on the back.
The weather matches my current mood which is s bit dismal.
 

Hebe

getting better all the time
Location
wiltshire
Madam Poppy's a teenage kitty now 😍 hope she enjoys her birthday steak. Our two girls are desperately excited and vocal, we think because of a dead pigeon on a nearby low hedge.
A quietly productive day. Took my Vita to the LBS because I'm fed up with failing to fix a slow puncture on the rear. Collected the new :training: from Sainsbury's then had to get the bus back because they were too heavy to carry. Despite the fact that I was carrying twice as much extra weight as them all the time two years ago. Walked back into town this afternoon to collect the Vita which had also had a mini service, now running beautifully. Laundry done, car on charge and three chapters into a new book.
 
Madam Poppy's a teenage kitty now 😍 hope she enjoys her birthday steak. Our two girls are desperately excited and vocal, we think because of a dead pigeon on a nearby low hedge.

Oh, it'll go down without touching the sides if I know the girls... :laugh:

I've had Poppy since she was three and a half months old - such a wonderfully bonkers (and typically tortie) companion.

Lexi has just stolen my sweaty cycling base layer from the laundry bag, and it's having the same effect on her as catnip. :wacko:
 
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