What's the Postie brought you today?

[Salty seadog]

50 extra large locusts. Live!

The diet of the future.

 

[Accy cyclist]

Just do it online, less room for mistakes.

I tried that and like the phone service it also sent me round the houses. Anyway,the item was delivered yesterday by the 'post person'. God knows why it required a signature as it was only a 5 quid lanyard.

 

[slowmotion]

Forty DuPont breadboard jumpers.

 

[Lullabelle]

Items I hadn't ordered, I only asked for a quote

 

[Kempstonian]

The diet of the future.

Or the next big thing in pets.

I got a couple of cable outers in this morning's post.

 

[ColinJ]

The blood circulation in my left leg is not great after a DVT in 2012 so I have been wearing compression socks on that leg ever since. They help to reduce swelling in the calf of that leg, which without them is an unpleasant nuisance.

I found quite a few problems with those compression socks...

1. They are quite hard to put on. I have ripped a few apart in the process.
   
2. I wear the heals out quite quickly.
   
3. I wear ordinary socks over them to reduce wear and tear but my feet overheat unless the weather is cold.
   
4. They can be quite expensive.

Then I saw an article about 'shin splints' which recommended the use of leg compression sleeves. They are effectively compression socks without the foot parts. That would help with points 1-3 but I expected them to still be quite expensive. Nope! I quickly found suppliers on eBay selling them very cheap so I thought I would try a pair.

One company had a very cheeky name which made me laugh (Supports Direct!), and they were doing sleeves for £3.99 incl. postage (THESE). I ordered a pair, and postie brought them me today.

Here is the dodgy calf wearing one...

It felt too tight but then I noticed that I was wearing it the opposite way round to the model on eBay. The white bands are elasticated and were pulling too hard on the back of the calf. I only lasted about 30 minutes with the sleeve as shown in the picture above. When I removed it I could see where the elastication had squashed the skin.

I have been wearing the sleeve the other way for an hour now and so far it feels good. I'll keep it on until I go to bed unless something starts to ache, and then I'll check the leg to make sure that all looks ok.

When the sleeve is the correct way round, the elasticated strips are pulling against the shin bone and the back of the calf has much more gentle overall support.

I'll report back later if there are any problems, but so far I am impressed. The sleeves are well made and look like they should last many times as long as the socks they are replacing. If you think you would benefit from a pair of these, give 'em a go. If you would like some sizing information, I'll check with a tape measure later.

BONUS: I discovered that the sleeves can double up as pretty good arm warmers! At least, if you are a fairly scrawny build so not with arms the size of @Drago's... They go from my wrist to a few cms beyond the elbow. I think they would stay up okay on a ride.

 

[Saluki]

A Decree Absolute

 

[screenman]

2 kilo of hot melt glue.

 

[mjr]

Dansi Melbourne light set. Lovely trapezoidal front beam, quite a bit wider at the bottom than the Lidl lights despite being a smaller lamp (powered by 2xAAs instead of USB recharging), so should be better for cornering at speed. It's currently on the ice bike but I might swap it to the road bike later. Not sure. I just remembered the Dansi is 30/15lx whereas the Lidl is 40/20/10lx... more thinking and testing needed!

 

[Reynard]

A bunch of stuff that went straight into the recycling wheelie bin.

 

[FishFright]

Rockshox XC 30 (ebay at silly price) and Shi'mano SLX front disk

 

[NorthernDave]

A very nice letter from Sue Ryder* thanking me for my donations to their local shop over the last year and advising me how much they'd sold the items for.

I was pleasantly surprised at the amount as it was mainly books - I'll buy a few books, read them and then donate them back, and repeat. It's inspired me to see what else we can donate this weekend.

* - not herself, obviously.

 

[Lullabelle]

A very nice letter from Sue Ryder* thanking me for my donations to their local shop over the last year and advising me how much they'd sold the items for.

I was pleasantly surprised at the amount as it was mainly books - I'll buy a few books, read them and then donate them back, and repeat. It's inspired me to see what else we can donate this weekend.

* - not herself, obviously.

When my mum passed we cleared out her stuff and donated to our local Help The Aged shop, it was nice to receive a letter of thanks and to know they got something from it. Unfortunately they are closing down as they are rarely used

 

[Lullabelle]

Yet more stuff I didn't order

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Proper cable cutters. Just got fed up with bodging.