Yay, it's cheery Friday.

[techno]

Bike loaded on the car. Kit bag in the boot

Nearly time to head up the M1 towards the Yorkshire Dales and the YD200

Taken the day off work today, and just had fish n chips with the kids :)
Bike packed, Train tickets remembered. See you over there this evening.

[ZeroDarkBivi]

Who would have thought almost 400,000 people are interested in minimalist bikepacking!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmaMshd ... gest-vrecs

Cheered me up, which I need, having borked my shoulder and off the bike for a bit now...

[Bearbonesnorm]

Who would have thought almost 400,000 people are interested in minimalist bikepacking!

... and breasts?

Cheered me up

I imagine it did

[Loki]

Supposed to be packing my new bike ready for a night out tomorrow, only thing I am loading up on is paracetamol and tissues, curse man flu!
On the upside I ordered some shiny bits.

[voodoo_simon]

Hmmm, she refers to both touring and bikepacking as one and she's packed ultra lightweight whilst her partner has packed two panniers


On a cheery note, Chris Boardman passed me today and was the first one to wave

[Blair512]

Who would have thought almost 400,000 people are interested in minimalist bikepacking!

... and breasts?

Cheered me up

I imagine it did

Everyone likes boobs!

Wish my misses would pack that light, when I bring her along we both end up with 60 litre packs as well as my full alpkit setup!

On a cheery Friday note I have a pint in my hand and a plan for some cycling amongst all of the decorating planned, if I pull it off without her catching me all will be well with the world!

[ctznsmith]

I thought today would be a long one at work with a late finish. However managed to get all my work done by 3pm so was out on my bike for an extended off road ride home by 4:15.

Just demolished a chinese takeaway and a pint.

[voodoo_simon]

Left my job last night

It's a nice feeling, freedom to do anything I want to (like not showering for 48 hours ) until I start my new career on Monday, teacher training

A weekend of hobo living...

[Roobell7]

Lazy weekend by my current standards
Cooking duties tonight which is always entertaining
Tomorrow it's another trip to the Peaks for the Scott MTB Marathon weekend with the the Silverstone crowd. Our mate Don retired to N Wales a while ago but was diagnosed with lukimia earlier this year (not related events, I think). His response to finishing treatment is to do the full 75km route at the best speed he can
We'll be there for some good banter, a few beers and a steady ride around the course with him

Next week is a drive down to Basel for work. Just so I can return via Belgum for the Dirty Boar gravel ride. Will be taking some bivy kit with me

[sean_iow]

Bit late as it's now Monday but the local paper does come out on a Friday but I didn't read it until over the weekend. It's only an article about the circus being in town but caught my eye as one of the performers is clearly a bike packer

[RIP]

Having intimated on another thread that small pleasures can be very satisfying, in that vein I bought some walnut whips today for no reason - not had 'em for ages - and both Mrs Perrin and myself indulged in one each. I think I had the salted-caramel one and she had the plain/walnut one. Some people like to bite the bottom off first and slurp the dubious creamy stuff, but we nibble the top nut first. It's up to you really. Three in a box but it would have been unseemly to scoff 1.5 each we thought. And how easy is it to vertically slice a walnut whip eh? We agreed afterwards that our cheerfulness rating had been raised by two units of cheerfulness (can someone tell us what units cheerfulness is measured in please?). So that was nice.

I'm not sure if "cheerful" is the correct description of today's other event at 12 Coleridge Close, but it was certainly pretty damn arresting. This week we started putting the sunflower hearts out again for the birdies, and our old friends the goldfinches have returned en masse. I noted over 20 of them earlier in the week, in the two seconds they stayed still enough to count. Anyway, there I was cheerfully ( ) watching them, when suddenly they started to rush away for apparently no reason. A second later, the sun was blotted out by this gigantic pterodactyl thing slamming into the birdfeeder and then onto the table. Oh. It appears that only N-1 goldfinches managed to depart in time where N had arrived. The victor then proceeded to have lunch for a good ten minutes, oblivious to me snapping away the other side of the window (or perhaps (s)he WANTED to be photographed). I suppose at least it had the decency to sit nicely at the table while eating. My sister, who's into these things, says it was a sparrowhawk. Never seen anything like it here before. Pretty impressive attack considering we're in the middle of town surrounded by lots of trees and other obstacles. Bit blurry through the window but best I could manage:





Oh, and Mock The Week is on later, and even if like me you think it's "nowhere near as good as when Frankie Boyle was on" it still raises a laugh or two and cheers me up.

R

[PeterC]

A very cheery post Reg With regards the Sparrowhawk I've been fortunate to see a few strikes over the years. Most incongruous was probably by the River Leven in Dumbarton which is a main parking area for the town centre, so lots of coming and going. Sparrowhawk takes a pigeon and proceeds to eat both breasts with cars and people coming and going and me standing watching a few meters away That strike was an ambush with the hawk coming out through some trees. Saw something similar a few years back down in Moffat when I was watching a flock of Sand Martin's feeding over the river, Brown speedball swoops out of the forest, a puff of feathers and supper was had. So ambush out of trees seems to be a successful strategy to adopt.
Thinks...bikepackingg and fishing....what about bikepacking and falconry, never need rely on dehydrated gloop ever again

[RIP]

'Bikepacking and falconry' . Be a good use of some Jones bars with the raptor perched like a figurehead on the front tube ...

[slarge]

Reg, that last photo is saying "you're next".....

Walnut whips ar e a special treat my much better half buys me occasionally, but my daughter (if she's home) will search cupboards looking for them. They are indulgent, hedonistic luxuries.

[RIP]

"You're next"

I'm too skinny to be more than just a snack I think...

[sean_iow]

Spotted this whilst browsing

https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/BEOHPAN/ohgi-panda-bell

Great description "It's a bell, it's a Panda, it's perfect for your children's first bike, or maybe you just love novelty bike bells, or pandas!"

Brought a smile to my face, I can imagine bikepackers sporting these as some kind of secret symbol to each other of their allegiance to a certain bikepacking forum

[pistonbroke]

Pity there's only 2 left in stock but given PX's stock control, this could be 0 or 200. They won't be restocked as they're likely bankrupt stock.
Sorry for the negativity but I worked there.

[RIP]

Hey Sean, many thanks for that - definitely cheered me up this Friday. In fact so much so that I went and had a look - only 2 left!

Although now there's only 0 left

R

PS> A nice freebie for events, Stu, if you could pick up a cheapo job lot from somewhere

[RIP]

While I'm at it being cheerful, post-lady just knocked and delivered some Bikeability certificates, and - original 1977 Rezillos 7" single "Can't Stand My Baby". 'I think I'm going crazy, I'm gonna go radge', 'I am uncool, oh yeah' - almost my theme tune there! Marvellous! Now added to Wednesday's delivery of "Mission Accomplished" LP. Still waiting for original "Cold Wars" single to turn up.

Slid lovingly out of its sleeve, then... oh. My CD player (equally "old-fashioned" now of course!) is going to have a job playing that isn't it, so a quick trip up into the loft (good grief, what IS all this stuff up here?), rootle about and find my old Dual turntable. Back down and install it in the front room (or 'drawing room as I like to call it), and away we go. Turn it right up to 11 and that'll blow the neighbours away! Obviously vinyl's back "in" now of course, but I haven't purchased any for yonks, not since I wasted(*) most of my 20's scouring the country for rare early-1960's stuff of which I amassed a considerable collection. Blimey I've got a new hobby (back).

R

(*) definitely not wasted, bit like BP, I visited some interesting new places. Finding music online these days has (like many things now) one gigantic aspect missing - the thrill of the chase. Riffling through the boxes and finally finding THAT one after months of searching was pretty much orgasmic. That's before you've even allowed yourself the pleasure of stroking the sleeve, admiring the artwork, and then finally that lovely "WARM" sound..... Sigh. Vinyl / digital = no contest. Maps / GPS = no contest. Cue backlash .

[sean_iow]

....Obviously vinyl's back "in" now

I noticed that last Christmas when my local Sainsbury's had vinyl LPs in stock, all classic albums like Nirvana's Nevermind, Sex Pistols' Never Mind..., Joy Division. Didn't but any as I had just about every one of the 20 or so they had already, on Vinyl, from when the first came out. It makes you feel old when the music of your youth which they didn't even play on daytime radio as it was too edgy is now on sale in the supermarket. I guess it's aimed at people of my (our) generation who didn't hang on to them from the first time the bought them.

[Bearbonesnorm]

I miss my copy of, Damned live in Newcastle but not as much as my first pressing of God save the Queen. Thankfully, I still have a full collection of Dickies singles ... happy days.

[whitestone]

There's a second hand vinyl shop in Skipton. Some of the prices are "interesting" especially of albums that you wouldn't think were that rare like Led Zeppelin's first album.

[Dave Barter]

It's cheery Friday for me as I've found my writing mojo again and hammered out a sub standard load more of the Spain C2C story. Hope to publish it soon. Lads get your lawyers ready

[Bearbonesnorm]

Looking forward to it Dave.

It would have been a cheeryish Fri for me, had I not just spent 40 minutes on the phone to a farmer who not only seems to think you lot are largely idiots who have no right leaving your inner-city slums, disabled people really shouldn't be allowed in the countryside and that anyone who finds themselves lost should be shot ... I'm not making this up. The upshot of those 40 minutes is that today is less Cheery Friday and more F*ck you Friday.

[RIP]

Bad luck Stu . Wasn't called Farmer Palmer was he? Of course we're all idiots, he doesn't think we "do it" for fun does he?