The Retirement Thread

[Deleted member 1258]

I did too - a 5-speed Raleigh. It was only 1.5 miles each way, but I had the horrendously hard Barkers' Butts Lane climb to tackle on the way home. It had slopes of about 2.5% at either end but a vicious 230 metre ramp at 4.5% in the middle...

Yes - actually a piddling little climb which I was able to sprint up aged 50 on a singlespeed bike with a big rucksack on my back. Still, aged 11-13 in Coventry it felt like a real monster!

The bike eventually got stolen from the school bike sheds, and that was me done with cycling for 20 years.

I've never been able to sprint up Barkers Butts, to steep, I couldn't even when I was young and fit, you must have been going well that day. Coventry was built on rolling countryside and ain't flat but we haven't got the lumps you've got round by you, I recon if I lived where you do I'd be climbing better, It was always noticeable when I was cub cycling that if someone spent a holiday climbing in the Alps or the Pyrenees they would be flying up the climbs for the first six months after they got back.

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

Good morning all, another cold and sunny start.

 

[Dave7]

Morning all.
A bright sunny morning here.
Yesterdays beautiful afternoon never arrived.......it turned cool and cloudy.
Looks more promising today.
Our meal (again) was salmon encroute with sautè potatoes......very nice.
As for today......I have no idea

 

[Exlaser2]

Morning all . Lovely start to the day here in tropical Coventry.
Just I little question for you all . Does anyone have a wife/partner/friend that has a completely irrational dislike like of everything to do with Mothers Day ?

Asking for a friend 😂😀

 

[Mo1959]

Back from a 6.3 mile hilly walk with my back still nagging away which put a damper on a cracking walk.

I went to visit the pets belonging to the Crieff Hydro.

 

[pawl]

Morning all . Lovely start to the day here in tropical Coventry.
Just I little question for you all . Does anyone have a wife/partner/friend that has a completely irrational dislike like of everything to do with Mothers Day ?

Asking for a friend 😂😀

I thought Mothers Day was more about the Mother Church than a reason for super markets to add 50% to bunches of flowers, chocolates etc

 

[Dirk]

Morning all . Lovely start to the day here in tropical Coventry.
Just I little question for you all . Does anyone have a wife/partner/friend that has a completely irrational dislike like of everything to do with Mothers Day ?

Asking for a friend 😂😀

MrsD has a dislike for anything involving greetings cards.
Saved me a fortune over the years.

 

[ColinJ]

I am awake much earlier than usual today.

My pal came over yesterday for our weekly meal and TV session and stopped over. Normally, I don't hear her moving about the house in the morning before she leaves. If she is up very early she normally goes without waking me. If around this time she would bring me a mug of tea and say goodbye.

I had assumed that I do not hear her because my hearing is so poor these days but today I woke up at 07:30 for some reason and could hear every noise she made... Footsteps up and down the stairs, doors opening and closing, taps running, the combi-boiler switching on and off, toilet flushing and so on...

I am not quite as deaf as I had feared! I must just be relaxed about her presence in the house and normally kind of filter out the sounds. Interesting!

I have already done 1.5 cryptic crosswords. I will play a few puzzle games on my tablet and then get up a couple of hours earlier than usual. It might be a step towards normalising my sleep pattern? I will need a snooze later but it would be good to do a few things first.

I did some work on my singlespeed bike yesterday to attempt to fix an annoying ticking sound from the transmission. I hope that my flash of inspiration turns out to have been correct or else I will end up buying lots of bits and trying again.

 

[PaulSB]

Good Day from bright and sunny Hawkshead. Today we will be heading off for a longish lowland walk, someone else's route I will just follow.

I'm going tonight for seven. It's an electric oven. I hate using an electric oven........and worse it's an induction hob.........I might just order in a takeaway 🤣

School? My primary school was a 30 minute bus ride from home. We were met at the other end and marched in a crocodile to the school. Secondary school was a 90 minute commute by two buses or two buses and train! At 11 years old!

There's a primary school in our village. The kids who live in the village are not allowed to walk to school unaccompanied. A parent has to escort them. We're talking 2-300 metres at most.

 

[Dave7]

There's a primary school in our village. The kids who live in the village are not allowed to walk to school unaccompanied. A parent has to escort them. We're talking 2-300 metres at most.

sounds good sense to me. Apparently some paedos lie in wait for "that" moment.

 

[ColinJ]

There's a primary school in our village. The kids who live in the village are not allowed to walk to school unaccompanied. A parent has to escort them. We're talking 2-300 metres at most.

I walked to school until I was 11. From 5-7 my older sister accompanied me. When I was 7, our family moved to Coventry. We were about 1 km from the school that my younger sister and I attended and I was the one in charge of the school 'run' (walk)!

From the age of 9, I would be cycling with my friends from Coundon (north Coventry) to Corley, Fillongley and other villages between Coventry and the southern fringes of Birmingham.

No parents involved!

It is sad how little independence young children tend to have these days, isn't it!

 

[PaulSB]

sounds good sense to me. Apparently some paedos lie in wait for "that" moment.

I agree Dave and understand the reasoning. Just find it sad those kids can't have the little bit of independence walking solo to and from school would give them.

 

[Mo1959]

I agree Dave and understand the reasoning. Just find it sad those kids can't have the little bit of independence walking solo to and from school would give them.

I'm quite sure there's no more "paedos" around now than there were when we were young. Social media and media in general has just ramped up the reporting massively.

 

[Paulus]

I'm quite sure there's no more "paedos" around now than there were when we were young. Social media and media in general has just ramped up the reporting massively.

Indeed, my primary school walk was only about 2miles, and I and my younger brother were unaccompanied from about the age of 8. Although a lot of the time we did cycle it.
At weekends or summer evenings I would be in the local park with friends, and we did meet some strange men, but we did as we were warned, not to speak to strange men, get into strangers cars etc. etc.
So I don't think that the prevalence of pedro's is any worse than then. It just gets a lot more coverage .

 

[Sterlo]

I can recall, my primary school was only shortish walk down the next street, but both my parents worked, so when I left school, I walked to the local post office on the main road where my Mum worked, collected the door key and went home, alone in the house until she came home later on. Can you imagine a 7 or 8 year old being allowed to do that nowadays, social services would be on the case straight away.