The Retirement Thread

[PaulSB]

I am officially exhausted!

Bed at 03:00. Games until 03:30. Dozed off at 04:00. Woke up every hour since to check that I haven't overslept. Now bubble pal is strumming my guitar in the room above me. I am fairly sure that the guitar is not quite in tune and it bugs me...

Oh, now she has surfaced to make sure that I don't oversleep!

The reason for all this fuss is that I have to go to Leeds soon to pick up my 'Devon bike'!


Don't you use GPS to navigate your club rides!!?

I got lost on a 200 km Audax ride in 2006 and once was enough for me. All new routes since then have used GPS navigation. The only times I got lost since then were when I tried to improvise a variation.

Oops, my alarm has gone off. I must not miss the train since Venod is kindly meeting me in Leeds to save me having to go all the way to Pontefract.

See you later!

Yes, always. Gravel rides are new to me and the club. In my very limited experience gravel rides need very careful mapping and a recce to ensure they work. This particular route I recce'd with a friend and we found one major obstruction which required climbing huge concrete blocks with a large pool on the other side - all created by a property developer building the adjoining estate. My friend re-routed this, sent me the new one which I rode solo - this required me to cross four streams, walk down a terrifying descent, paddle through some very smelly mud only to arrive at an 8 foot fence erected by the same frigging developer. I re-planned again and solved this problem but somehow accidentally altered the route much further on which left me lost despite having ridden the section three times previously.

I know where it went wrong - a five way gravel junction in the middle of Bickershaw Park.

Road rides on the other hand I plot and go. We know Lancashire like the back of our hands so it's easy to do and if a road ride goes wrong a bit of common sense soon gets one back on track. If I'm out with the OAPs we make it up as we go along.

 

[Tenkaykev]

Yes, always. Gravel rides are new to me and the club. In my very limited experience gravel rides need very careful mapping and a recce to ensure they work. This particular route I recce'd with a friend and we found one major obstruction which required climbing huge concrete blocks with a large pool on the other side - all created by a property developer building the adjoining estate. My friend re-routed this, sent me the new one which I rode solo - this required me to cross four streams, walk down a terrifying descent, paddle through some very smelly mud only to arrive at an 8 foot fence erected by the same frigging developer. I re-planned again and solved this problem but somehow accidentally altered the route much further on which left me lost despite having ridden the section three times previously.

I know where it went wrong - a five way gravel junction in the middle of Bickershaw Park.

Road rides on the other hand I plot and go. We know Lancashire like the back of our hands so it's easy to do and if a road ride goes wrong a bit of common sense soon gets one back on track. If I'm out with the OAPs we make it up as we go along.

Amateur!

I twice recce'd my leg of the Wessex Ridgeway Relay and deviously tied a small bit of tape at a couple of potentially confusing waypoints. I still managed to get lost 🤔

 

[welsh dragon]

I went to t be crappy Co Op. Bought some salad stuff. Still a lot of traffic about.

 

[ColinJ]

Successful bike collection, and managed to get early train back. Will check it once home and go for a test ride this evening.

 

[Tenkaykev]

Mrs Tenkaykev and I watched a film on Netflix last night. We don’t watch a lot of TV, the Netflix and Disney Plus subscriptions are mainly used by the kids. The Film was “ Yesterday “ , a Danny Boyle film the premise of which was the main character, a struggling amateur musician wakes up after an accident into a world where everything is the same apart, but the Beatles never existed. He starts performing their songs and the story goes from there. A lovely heartwarming story with some great music.

 

[numbnuts]

Morning, did a “live chat” with my insurance company, same old, same old, seems like no one want to part with the spondoolies

 

[PaulSB]

If I don't post tomorrow morning please send out a search party. I will be riding ever decreasing circles round Wigan and may well have met myself going the other way.

🤞🤞🤞

 

[gavroche]

Just got into my scruff to do some fence painting when Mrs G asked me to go with her to get some grow bags. I am not changing again so will go as I am.

 

[ColinJ]

Mrs Tenkaykev and I watched a film on Netflix last night. We don’t watch a lot of TV, the Netflix and Disney Plus subscriptions are mainly used by the kids. The Film was “ Yesterday “ , a Danny Boyle film the premise of which was the main character, a struggling amateur musician wakes up after an accident into a world where everything is the same apart, but the Beatles never existed. He starts performing their songs and the story goes from there. A lovely heartwarming story with some great music.

I hadn't spotted that one. It sounds like the kind of film that I would enjoy - thanks!

 

[oldwheels]

Just back from a reasonable trike ride on my usual route. Nice sunny day with a little wind. Traffic building up as I came back. The only real bampots I met was when I was driving tho' there was one when on the trike who did not know what passing places were for but managed to get far enough on the the verge to let me pass.
There is no pleasure in driving on single track with lots of traffic and they do not realise that they are destroying what they came for. Perhaps I am getting more used to lots of traffic but now just do not care if they are delayed. Locals I always give way to as they are mostly working or on an errand and not just driving around aimlessly
Campsite was not busy when I went past but they may all be out for a day run.

 

[ColinJ]

I was doing my crosswords on the train to Leeds this morning and a woman a few seats away was in the middle of a phone call. One of those 'speak loud enough to make sure everybody in the carriage can hear what you are saying' calls...

Two mitigating factors... For once: (1) She had a very pleasant voice, and (2) She could actually string some decent sentences together. So, none of that screeching "Tracey sed WOT??? Effing SLAG!!!" stuff that sometimes gets inflicted on unlucky fellow passengers...

I could only hear her side of the conversation though. As the call progressed, it became obvious that it was between two people who were very close but who can't have seen each other during the pandemic. I was trying to work out if the other person was a son, a brother, a lover, or just a very good friend. Lots of "love", "darling", "honey" and other terms of endearment. But then, as the call was finishing...

"Sorry, remind me - what did you say your name is?"

 

[ColinJ]

Now I'm wondering if it was an over-familiar business call, or a middle-aged woman looking for some hot Tinder-action!

 

[Lee_M]

I hadn't spotted that one. It sounds like the kind of film that I would enjoy - thanks!

watched that at the cinema before lockdown, I was expecting to be disappointed, I wasnt. Very nice film.

Then again I liked the Elton John film (Rocketman) too and I know lots don't

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

Today’s saunter was a favourite loop from Kincraig taking in a bit of Glenfeshie and the Uath Lochans. Wildlife spots included a tawny owlet snoozing in a tree, a nice view of a perched cuckoo, and a pair of ospreys on the nest, one in it the other perched a few feet away.

 

[Tenkaykev]

I've just been having an Online chat with tech support at my ISP. Having recently " Upgraded" to " Superfast Fibre" from bog standard fibre I'm still only getting about 40Mb/s which is close to what I was already getting. The upload speed is much improved so they have "switched it on" Online chat asked me to connect to the BT Master socket which is when I disconnected the wrong cable and lost the connection. I've sent them an Email so fingers crossed for a response saying that they have found an issue. Otherwise I may as well "downgrade" and save a fiver a month.