Cycling UK Forum

pete75 wrote: ↑12 Oct 2021, 1:47pm Couldn't they do that if they went to the top of that arch like structure next to it?

I think you might be beheaded if you tried that...

Well, I'm no Londoner, I live near the South Downs, and I can tell you, there are plenty of superb viewpoints up there. And all for free! My fave spot is Wolstonbury Hill but there are plenty of others. Ditchling Beacon for one...

Isn't there a crime of 'obstructing the Police' or similar? TC?

merseymouth wrote: ↑12 Oct 2021, 7:58am But the real problem for me if I used Johnny as my role model would be keeping the monocle from falling in the G&T, something that happened to the late, great Patrick Moore when I was supping with him. But he simply hauled out on the string then sucked it clean

Was this you?

mjr wrote: ↑11 Oct 2021, 2:04pm

661-Pete wrote: ↑11 Oct 2021, 11:16am Pedestrians about to cross who step back hurriedly and scowl when they see me coming, even though they're on the 'green man' and I'm coming to a stop. Yes I understand, I know there are RLJs amongst the vast medley of cyclists and POBs. I just don't like being tarred....

Try slowing well ahead rather than stopping at the line in a cloud of dust and gravel

How do you suppose I stop at red lights?

Oldjohnw wrote: ↑11 Oct 2021, 4:31pm You obvious aren’t aware of the problems of farmed salmon. They carry more sea lice and often escape, passing this on to the wild salmon. And escaped farmed salmon have no home river to spawn in.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I most certainly am aware of these downsides of farmed salmon - and every time we buy some I feel a faint twinge of conscience. Yes - no-one's perfect, and no-one's guilt-free - and we certainly aren't.

The main thing I can say in its favour is that salmon farming produces less CO2 than land animals, per Kg of meat/fish produced.

When we can get it, we go for wild sockeye salmon which is sustainable, albeit somewhat dearer. But it's not always available.

Mussels (rope-grown) are another highly sustainable seafood. We have those quite often. Not to everyone's taste, I suppose.

Psamathe wrote: ↑11 Oct 2021, 12:23pm Reminds me of the Peruvian/Bolivian "es vegetariano con pollo" that happens a fair amount

I think a similar thing happens in France sometimes - you see in the menu fish dishes listed amongst the plats végétariens.

I once read an article about a vegetarian journalist visiting Thailand. It seems that in Thai (and maybe other languages) there is no generic word for 'meat'. So she got busy explaining to the waiter: "I don't eat beef, I don't eat pork, I don't eat chicken, I don't eat fish...." etc. etc.

Eventually the waiter brought her a plateful of live red ants....

I can certainly remember both mac cheese and cauli cheese from my childhood days, too. Perhaps we ought to revive them...

We certainly get into arguments about whether "fish is meat". If it is, we are lying in calling ourselves 'meat-free'. I think the problem is mainly linguistic: the word 'meat' is ill-defined. We might refer to the white flesh of a coconut as the 'meat', even thought it's indisputably veggie! It certainly contains plenty of cholesterol...

I'll stick with limiting the word to mean mammal or bird flesh. It makes me feel more comfortable!

Maybe the reduction in meat-eating goes hand-in-hand with the decline in traditional British fare, as set down in this article. Seeing as a lot of those dishes involved meat in some form (remember that mincemeat used to contain real meat, and spotted dick* traditionally made with beef suet) - I think the two trends are linked.

I must plead, however, that we still have a liking for bangers-'n-mash. Even if the 'bangers' are in reality (veggie) Glamorgan sausages, and the mash actually comes from potatoes, not some Martian junk...

*Am I allowed to say those words on the forum?

Most of the things already mentioned (not the one about not quite catching another cyclist, seeing as that's something I'd never be able to do!)

Pedestrians about to cross who step back hurriedly and scowl when they see me coming, even though they're on the 'green man' and I'm coming to a stop. Yes I understand, I know there are RLJs amongst the vast medley of cyclists and POBs. I just don't like being tarred....

rjb wrote: ↑8 Oct 2021, 4:40pm

Mick F wrote: ↑7 Oct 2021, 2:35pm

I lifted the rat by the tail, and dropped it into the burning coals in our solid fuel kitchen range .......... then washed my hands.

You missed out on the Ratatouille, did you make rat fritters.

Sorry - can't resist....

As it happens we're having Ratatouille tonight - but alas! sans R. norvegicus - who still remains at large...

PDQ Mobile wrote: ↑9 Oct 2021, 8:05am

pwa wrote: ↑9 Oct 2021, 7:25am...continuing to buy UK meat as a premium product produced to high standards...

Higher quality?
Some is and some definitely isn't.

I do not see UK agriculture through your rose tinted spectacles.

I think you're misunderstanding pwa - or maybe pwa could have worded it better. What he probably meant was ...continuing to buy only that UK meat which is a premium product produced to high standards...

Of course we all know that much of UK meat is produced to appallingly poor standards. And that the 'red tractor' logo is worthless as an indicator of good quality (see here). Those who choose to eat a reduced amount of meat should be selective.

If they can afford to. Not everyone can...

freeflow wrote: ↑8 Oct 2021, 12:46pm It probably means that a proportion of the population can't afford as much meat as 10 years ago.

Is it that meat is becoming more expensive, or that some of the population are becoming less well off? (the cut in UC comes to mind).

As to the price of meat - well, I'm the wrong person to ask, but I did observe that you can still get a whole chicken, say, for less than £2.50 per Kg. That doesn't look like overpriced meat to me.

As to measuring how much meat this country consumes, would tonnage passing through the abattoirs be a good indication? Of course this doesn't take account of imports and exports.

That chainset piccy reminded me....

I was removing a (tapered-BB) crank off the bike - my son's bike as it happens, making it even more embarrassing. The tool I was using was one like this, i.e. with two hexagonal nuts (I've bought a better tool since then).

Well, I removed the crank bolt and screwed the tool into the crank until it was just tight. Then I wielded the spanner and proceeded to drive the crank off the taper.

"Phew! this is a toughie" I seem to remember remarking. Eventually "Ah! Here it comes!". Perhaps you can guess the rest.

I'd applied the spanner to the outer nut - the one that tightens the extractor onto the crank, not the one that pushes on the BB.

Result: stripped thread on the crank, and crank still firmly wedded to the BB. I think I managed to get it off eventually, with hacksaw and file...

Another thing we'd definitely need some sort of gas flame for - that's chapatis. Yes I've become quite adept at making my own chapatis, but according to my method I do need a gas flame to puff up the dough. So if we ever do change out to induction, it'll be the old Camping Gaz stove coming out of mothballs...