The Retirement Thread

[welsh dragon]

We are having fish and chips tonight. Someone in Mach does it from a van and goes round on Wednesday evening's. My daughter is going to get it for me. Can't remember the last time we had fish and chips.

 

[PaulSB]

I worked with a lot. Girls that moved in next door last year are a same sex couple too as are Maddy and Gemma along the road. I never really give it a second thought these days.

Oh this is such a difficult one for men! Many of my friends are female, my best friend is a woman, and aside from this I am very conscious that using the wrong word can be offensive to women in general. I've noticed the women I ride with will often refer to "the girls" and it is quite acceptable when it is one of them using the phrase. From a man???? We're talking looks like a dagger! I did once ask all the women I ride with how they prefer to be referred to - woman, female or lady. I simply wanted to get it right!!

I'm advised by the women I know some of them don't care if they know the individual means no offence but as a general rule they would all prefer to be referred to as "woman" or "women." As one put it when did you ever speak of a male rider so why on earth would you speak of a female rider? Yep, makes sense.

 

[BoldonLad]

I thought she got annoyed at everything.

This has more than a grain of truth in it

 

[PaulSB]

I've collected the Cannondale I bought, looks very nice hung up with the rest. Just need to swap the pedals from the Dolan. Also been to the LBS to pick up a couple of new valve cores and a spare core extractor - I like to keep one at home and one in my saddlebag. I've spent a frustrating time trying to pair my Wahoo blue SC sensor with the Wahoo Fitness app.** Everything fails so I'm waiting for me instructions from Wahoo Support.

** it pairs perfectly with the Wahoo Elemnt cycle computer but not with the Fitness app which is for turbo use. I don't have a turbo but my feeling is if it won't pair with this app there must be an underlying problem.

Other than this I've done bugger all.

 

[Dave7]

Oh dear @Mo1959 , you obviously have not been following the "words that annoy me for no reason" thread, you will annoy the aubergine farmer (aka Mudsticks), using the word "girls" to refer to adult women. It is OK, I will not "drop you in it"

TBF there is not much that doesn't annoy her

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I've managed to get out for a bimble this afternoon, forced myself out the door. I've been out to Ashby Parva by the scenic route and rode 41 miles. It turned out to be a most enjoyable afternoons cycling. I've recently changed the gearing on my fixed, I was running a 44 x 17 68 inch gear and whilst it was pleasant on the flat and good on the downhills I was slow on the climbs and into headwinds, so I changed it to a 42 x 17 65 inch gear and rode that for the first time today, its a bit spinney on the flat and on the downhills but a lot easier on the climbs and when dealing with headwinds, spinning rather than pushing is a lot easier on my back as well. For todays ride I stayed main road, out through Shilton and Wolvey then right and past the Axe And Compass, picked up the Fosse Way, crossed the A5 and into Ullesthorpe, I turned left in the village then did a loop through Ashby Parva and Leire then through Claybrook Magna and back on the route out to retrace my wheel tracks back into Coventry. So thats a decent afternoon out pedaling, if I can find time to get more like that in I might even find my missing mojo.

 

[12boy]

That's only just over Naismith's Rule, good going.

Not good at basic arithmetic, me. But, thanks for this bit of knowledge. So, 6.11 miles with 359 feet of elevation means I can take 11 minutes of the trip, which would yield an average speed of 19 minute miles? I am assuming the extra time allowed for the elevation holds true no matter how long the trip. is that correct?
And how about downhill? Do you add time equivalently for a loss in elevation? if so, in my case it would be a wash, since I went down to the low point before climbing back up.
I've often wondered about a similar concept for bicycles, is there such a formula for them? I am not so concerned with headwind speed when walking but it makes a bigger difference when biking. A formula that could factor in headwinds, tailwind and elevation loss and gain would be amazing.
This thread has taught me a lot, especially about haggis, scones and language differences between us. In fact , I'm semi ok with that, for the nonce.
It is going to get up to 0C today with 27 mph winds. For some reason, such as terminal wussiness, bike riding does not appeal so much, so maybe a little stroll would be better. Mrs 12 wants 2 rotisserie chickens from a little grocery that specializes in high end foodstuffs and has a deli. The chickens are actually very tasty and we'll eat one and make the other into something else, chicken salad and perhaps a little curried chicken.
Be well, safe and stay leeward, amigos y amigas.

 

[Dave7]

Don't tell anyone but......
Our daughter called around this afternoon and stayed 2 hours .
She had shopped online and bought us some goodies....as in food and washing powder.
Sat in the conservatory, 3 metres apart. Hope that is ok.
We are becoming rebellious. Yesterday was fish n chips in the park......today meeting our daughter

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Don't tell anyone but......
Our daughter called around this afternoon and stayed 2 hours .
She had shopped online and bought us some goodies....as in food and washing powder.
Sat in the conservatory, 3 metres apart. Hope that is ok.
We are becoming rebellious. Yesterday was fish n chips in the park......today meeting our daughter

My stepson was with us most of Friday, he was having work done on his car at a place not far from here so he came to see us rather than go home to the other side of the city.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

On our home front I've been talking to my Good Lady on the phone today, she sounds a bit more cheerful than she did when she went in. I've also had a long conversation with the hospital, before she can come home I need to organise a bed downstairs for her, so one of our two seater settee's has got to go and I need to reorganize the lounge, fortunately we have plenty of space, its just a case of freeing some of it up.

 

[12boy]

Mudsticks does have her opinions and that is what I like about her. Much like the other women on this forum. In my twenties I quit martial arts and joined a dance company which was composed of women who'd been dancing since they were children. I sucked at this and found it very difficult, but also rewarding in terms of developing balance, stretch, and rhythm. qualities I soon learned I was grossly deficient in. There were usually a couple of men in the studio vs about 30 women and they soon regarded me as a piece of furniture and spoke very freely in front of me which was sometimes embarrassing to listen to. Much franker than I found men in their assessment of the opposite sex. Being naive, I had believed women to be more gentle and nicer than men, but these women were competing for roles in dance performances, and they were aggressive and sometimes downright malicious with each other. There was a definite hierarchy there, largely based on dancing ability and good looks. I learned a lot from the 3-4 years I was with the company.

 

[Tenkaykev]

Oh this is such a difficult one for men! Many of my friends are female, my best friend is a woman, and aside from this I am very conscious that using the wrong word can be offensive to women in general. I've noticed the women I ride with will often refer to "the girls" and it is quite acceptable when it is one of them using the phrase. From a man???? We're talking looks like a dagger! I did once ask all the women I ride with how they prefer to be referred to - woman, female or lady. I simply wanted to get it right!!

I'm advised by the women I know some of them don't care if they know the individual means no offence but as a general rule they would all prefer to be referred to as "woman" or "women." As one put it when did you ever speak of a male rider so why on earth would you speak of a female rider? Yep, makes sense.

I've heard both males and females, usually younger people address mixed gender groups using the collective term "guys" . It seems to be becoming a bit gender neutral but that's just my perception. " Folks " seems a neutral general form of address too. I've read that Sweden have added a gender neutral pronoun to the language, with Hon = female, Han = male and Hen = non gender specific. Not sure if this would work in Scotland, I've watched loads of Rab C and I'm sure "hen" refers to females.

 

[monkers]

Hi all.

A quick update. Mum's funeral is next Wednesday. We've been told that the queue is such that the service will be kept very short, that there can be no more that 15 people at the service, there is to be no hanging around after the service. There can be no wake. I feel pretty bad about this, I wasn't able to be with her at the end, don't feel able to giver her a decent send off, not able to meet with more than the immediate family. Not the best of times, what with the present national picture, the gloomy weather, political climate, etc.

At least I now have my bike fully fettled so that it rides better than any time since the day I bought it. I really like my bike; it looks purposeful rather than pretty, and I've spent too much time looking at bike porn, making me think that I might need to treat myself in the spring. I might do a self-build to avoid the troubles I've had while relying on others. We'll see.

Take excellent care all, really hope everybody is well. xx

 

[PaulSB]

I've heard both males and females, usually younger people address mixed gender groups using the collective term "guys" . It seems to be becoming a bit gender neutral but that's just my perception. " Folks " seems a neutral general form of address too. I've read that Sweden have added a gender neutral pronoun to the language, with Hon = female, Han = male and Hen = non gender specific. Not sure if this would work in Scotland, I've watched loads of Rab C and I'm sure "hen" refers to females.

Yes, I agree "guys" has become gender neutral.

 

[ColinJ]

Back on the subject of cryptic crosswords...

I was thinking that the clue I solved (see above) was a lot more obvious than the others, which I am still currently stuck on. I have noticed this kind of thing before and assumed that the puzzle setter had run out of ideas or just found it tricky to think up something clever for the last space in the puzzle. My puzzle guide points out that it is in fact a common thing to do. There isn't much point in a puzzle which is so hard that virtually nobody can solve it, so the setter sneaks in a few easier clues. If you spot them, you solve those first and that should give you several extra clues in the form of known letters for other answers crossing the ones that you have solved.

There are 202 puzzles in The Times Big Book of Cryptic Crossword Puzzles, Volume #1. I'm going to try to get to the standard required to solve puzzle #1, and then try to live long enough to solve #2 - #202!

Time to study more of the guide, then try to solve another couple of clues...

Yes, I agree "guys" has become gender neutral.

I have been thinking about this subject recently...

I bought a Kindle book explaining how to write a book. I probably won't ever write one, but it is an interesting subject. (I read Stephen King's book 'On Writing', which is part autobiography, part writer's guide. I'd like to read more...)

The Kindle book is 'Becoming a Writer' by Dorothea Brande. It was written by her in 1934 and became a bestseller. Obviously, times were different then and she seems to use exclusively male pronouns. Most reviewers were content with this, given the age of the book, but one critical female reviewer declared...

... the worst offense though was her exclusive use of male pronouns. I know: It was written forever ago but she could've made an effort and used a mixed bag of pronouns to ensure inclusion.

Not really very likely in 1934!

But nowadays...?

I can see why the question is important, but there are traps! I have seen writers declare in their introduction that they will alternate pronoun gender chapter by chapter. Sure enough 'he, his, him' then 'she, her, her'... One problem was that the topics of the male chapters happened to be positive ones, and those of the female chapters more negative. That might lead to the suspicion that it was done deliberately! If turned round the other way, it could still be criticised for the same reason. The other thing is - the constant gender swapping feels odd.

I think it would make a lot of sense to just use gender neutral words all the time. In English, why not just settle on 'they, their, them'?