manuel

Griff carved a pumpkin. I'm not a hallowe’en fan but griff wanted to do one so we went picking, he chose one and designed it himself.

That’s a massive bargain the 2021 is £390!

The vitus looks a good shout, tyres are a bit ott, but currently out of stock, where did you get the bergamont?

This. I’ve spent 18months or so in pretty dire working conditions whilst a good percentage of people weren’t giving a shit, or pissing about telling me it’s soooo hard being on furlough, and going abroad on holiday. Now we are back to “guidelines” and highest cases on the globe, and I’m not so inclined to give two shits either. The person most at risk in my family died this year so I guess incredibly selfishly, I don’t have to care that much. I’ll have whatever jab, and do whatever is mandatory, but optional? No.

So, griffs been rocking his commencal ramones 14 since he was 3. He is 5 in February and still a shortarse (and probably will continue to be for his age). He is on the limit on size on the ramones now, and has been for a while, so we need something new. Bike prices seem to have risen a lot, and I’m loathed to get a 16” wheeled bike, so what I’m looking for is a decent 20” wheel one with low standover. Hopefully something that can last a long time. The best looking thing looked like an early rider belter with the gear hub, but they are rare as hell on eBay and I’m not sure the standover will be low enough anyway. any suggestions/experiences?…

I has new car! finally! 18 Passat estate. Just got fed up and bought one. It was expensive, but meh, life feels too short. If anyone has any advice for keeping an actually nice car looking nice (products and techniques) I would appreciate it. Having had bangers that never got washed for the best part of 10years, I could use it!

They have KO’d a couple of Griffs friends

shed update. AC in started building a long needed bike box (I know the timbers aren't working the right way round here, but Im using up leftovers and space was tight) leftover shed roofing... Ground level is gonna come up with gravel and some flags in the bin bit so its easier to get out. Oh and doors

Always worth having it stated who owns what shares of a property just in cases... We know too many people where just assuming it will be ok has gone wrong after a split or death. Especially as you aren't married yet and there is a large amount of capital in it.

Took the banger for an mot (speculative) and it failed, but in such a way I would be stupid not to fix it and simultaneously be stupid to spend any money on fixing it. Bah. Coil spring and some dust boot on the anti roll bar. both garage jobs for me but relatively cheap, its just pretty much everything is now broken and its a ticking timebomb of a car.

watched squid game yet ?

Looks like 4K might be an issue but 1080p should be fine.

Interestingly - bulb just increased our monthly payment by £30. Prices go up on the 1st but by around £3 a week (apparently) and nothing else has changed. Call me a cynical old git but they seem to be raising some credit by being shits.

I really don’t know about the floor l I’m thinking maybe teak? Doesn’t seem dark enough for mahogany etc and it’s too dark for oak (I think) but the grain looks similar. It seems pretty tough and the bona mega was really easy to do and gave a nice finish. I think I went a bit overboard on the general finish, but to be honest it wasn’t expensive really - just time consuming. Floor, walls and skirting cost less than 400 total I think.

Taped, joined, filled and sanded painted and made a mess Sanded the floor, didn’t do a great job but I only had a day this time instead of a weekend. It’ll do was the attitude by the end. Finished the floor. Ended up using a polyurethane. Bona mega varnish because, well, lols Added my speakers (forgot the wiring when I did the walls so I have posts on the skirting…) finished the skirting and doorframe got some serious Lego in got a desk and a new sofa bed in. have been really enjoining using it. So much fitting out required. I’d like to build a nice desk at some point but this will do for now. Now I need to sort some sort of extended canopy for shade and some blinds. AC hopefully going in in a couple of weeks. Griff is starting school and the drawn out period of one day on and one day off, combined with other stuff has been quite stressful so it’s really nice to retreat out there for a chill out. Edit: the editor has gone mad and I can’t remove these extra photos.

Shit the bed - I had no idea this was happening. I’ve not paid much attention to the news for some time (biggest lasting COVID life change) but as it turns out Bulb could go down the pan too! We’ve been with them for ages and they are a pretty big supplier.

so I would say as you mentioned - the chances of going 10years with abnormal rhythm and no side effects would be small so I would expect that people who have that side effect would be included in the statistical analysis? same with blood clotting, I can’t imagine that the chances of getting a blood clot AND it being lodged somewhere with no side effects and then turning into a fatal hit are particularly high. but yes I would class both those as short term effects as they happen immediately and 99.9999999999999999etc of the general cases where those side effects happen will likely be recorded as part of the statistics. the only other thing I would say is there is a bit of confirmation bias going on here probably (on both sides). My experience is entirely different with vaccination. For a start I only know a handful of people who actually got COVID (officially) and none who had any kind of bad experience with it. And again I know no one who has had anything other than a sore arm and a mild fever with the vaccination. If it were different and I had an experience like yours I’d like to think I’d still have it but I might not. The beauty of stats from such a big data set is that the overall stats will be pretty accurate but an individual may be lucky or unlucky with what they see?

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02054-z Yes but at a very reduced rate.

yes - but those issues appeared in the short term. all the damage was done by someone taking the drug in the very early stages of pregnancy. Tests on pregnancy were never carried out and it was just assumed there was no issue as it was deemed a harmless drug for humans. I would class thalidomide as having short term appearing effects that lasted a long time. its a special case as those short term effects were unable to be seen for 9 months... Im not saying pfizer or others can't do severe damage very quickly, Im saying we absolutely know what the risks of that damage are now, and its not going to turn out that people start dropping dead in 10 years time from a long term unknown side effect.

Pfizer has been administered nearly 6 Billion times. That is a huge data set to determine side effect percentages pretty darn accurately. all the talk of long term data is a non starter - there aren’t long term effects for vaccines. They don’t stay in your body long enough. You can have side effects that appear in the short term, that may have long term effects on life, but they aren’t going to give you cancer 10 years from now. They pass completely out of your system in weeks, and you are left with entirely natural immune response. Because of this and the number of hits we have given out, the risks of taking this vaccine is known to a pretty high degree of accuracy. The risk of taking the vaccine is significantly lower than that of getting covid19 the old fashioned way. (Again - huge number of data points for this too) Anyone can choose not to take the vaccine, and that’s their call, especially if they are in low risk groups. But that’s still a roll that’s unnecessary, and does nothing to decrease transmission. I still think taking a prescription drug without proper medical advice (a prescription), to combat something that has a proven pretty effective vaccine, when there are no published studies that have shown that it’s actually effective, is basically bordering on conspiracy theory action.

Looks like 2 full hours of (full) sunlight for a 500+ Wh battery then?

Im not against them, I just don't get them. They weigh a tonne and feel a bit silly to ride to me. I enjoy riding up hill, and the heft makes it less enjoyable going downhill for me too. Gimme a lightweight hardtail any day.

better still - the uk gets with the times and converts to km, which makes the E-bike limit make more sense...

It’s a done deal. Russell deserves a decent drive. Would be funny if merc are nowhere next year after all this though