"Did you miss me, Yeah, while I was away, did you hang my picture on your wall?..." (Given the lack of curiosity about my absence, the answer is clearly
'NO!'
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)
I was going to post the music video here, but then remembered that the song was by Gary 'sicko' Glitter so I
won't!
Greetings upon my return from the mid-1980s!
My landline and broadband went down on Monday morning. I used my mobile to contact Plusnet and they did a quick diagnostic, confirmed the problem, then booked Openreach to sort it out. It has taken 3 days...
I was wondering why it was taking so long but walked to the shops last night and spotted that Openreach had dug up the pavement at my local green cable junction box. Either they had a major cable fault, or they are finally getting round to running fibre to that cabinet. If the latter, then it would have been nice to have been told that I would be cut off for 3 days!
My comment about the 1980s was inspired by my unexpected feelings of isolation, helplessness and boredom with no access to the Internet***. I have managed to cope with the Covid-19 situation really well but the last 3 days have been hard. I spoke to my sister briefly on Monday evening but other than that I have been stuck in my own little world.
Social media (including CycleChat) - nope.
Online news - no (back to using the BBC TV News channel).
Researching interesting historical, geographical, scientific subjects... no.
Computer programming advice/tips - not available.
Netflix/iPlayer/All4 - no chance.
The wonderful and awful mess that is YouTube - ha ha - not now, Col!
Check out future ride routes on Streetview - come back later.
Sports streaming... get real!
And so on...
I knew that I was heavily dependent on broadband but not having it revealed exactly how big a deal it is for me. I first got it about the time my dad died - late 2003 - and I really don't like being without it now.
*** I wasn't
completely cut off - I have an emergency data quota of 0.5 GB on my mobile phone but I was keeping that in reserve for checking my emails and contacting Plusnet. I still used up 2/5 of that data in the 3 days.
*************
A simple test would be to discuss with someone where you should hide the IEDs before you carry out your attack. PS Only do this if you actually enjoy having your door broken down in the middle of the night by heavily armed men dressed in black!
Nah...
THIS is a high front end on an audax bike!
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The elderly woman who owns that bike rides lots of long distance audax events, but she clearly has issues with her back. The bar setup looks really odd, but it does mean that she can continue to cycle, so I am not knocking it! (I asked her for permission to take the photo and she said that she didn't mind.)
They have left the maximum length of steerer so you can experiment and get the stem exactly where you want it. I would be moving rather more than a couple of spacers!
I only had 3 x 0.5 cm spacers on my best bike but moved them up 1 at a time until all 3 are now
above the stem... (I also unflipped the stem and bought a longer one. I find the new stretched out, lower position more comfortable than my old more upright one.
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I put compact bars on so the distance to the drops is less than it was before, and that allows me to use the drops a lot more now.
Better than the usual poxy ban, but it clearly fails the '
Driving: right or privilege?' test.
A lot of people (and the law itself) seem to regard driving as a human right, and therefore something that should be restricted as little as possible. I suggest instead that it is
privilege granted only to those who do not abuse it. A minor abuse should result in a temporary removal of the privilege. Major abuses such as using a vehicle as a weapon with the intent to cause death or serious injury should result in a permanent removal of the privilege. Let the abusers ride bikes instead (or walk, or catch a train/bus/taxi)!