Yay, it's cheery Friday.

[fatbikephil]

Was OK that year the Finnish death metal band won, but otherwise and load of utter pish

[whitestone]

Was OK that year the Finnish death metal band won, but otherwise and load of utter pish

They were from Rovaniemi - the main square in town is named after them!

[fatbikephil]

Was OK that year the Finnish death metal band won, but otherwise and load of utter pish

They were from Rovaniemi - the main square in town is named after them!

Ha right enough, just remembered that! I think they also did a rather funny throat sweet advert

[adjustablewench]

Cheery Friday indeed...spinning up and down the Corvedale....smelling familiar smells and enjoying the familiar views. Great service at Pearce Cycles in Ludlow...pleasant and courteous drivers unlike Qld. Couldn't have asked for nicer weather for a couple of hours out on 2 wheels. Here's hoping the bag of sunshine we brought from Brisvegas continues to function for a few more weeks.

Greetz

S : )

I heard you were back, how long for?

[Scattamah]

@ AW - slothing in Midlands/Wales until first week of June. It's cheery Friday every day...for a little while.

Greetz

S : )

[RIP]

You alright down there in Brixham our Dave?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czrxrryvr24o

"A government spokeswoman said: "The prime minister understands the stress and worry this has caused residents.
"Any water company that's found to be in breach of rules on drinking water should expect to face the appropriate enforcement action up to and including criminal prosecution."

Ha ha ha ha! Really.

You could always use your Trailshot on your tap water .

[sean_iow]

You alright down there in Brixham our Dave?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czrxrryvr24o

"A government spokeswoman said: "The prime minister understands the stress and worry this has caused residents.
"Any water company that's found to be in breach of rules on drinking water should expect to face the appropriate enforcement action up to and including criminal prosecution."

Ha ha ha ha! Really.

You could always use your Trailshot on your tap water .

I think Dave's abroad so he can't drink the tap water anyway

Don't confuse the performance of the water companies with regard to sewage to their efforts with water supply. Our tap water is the best in the world, by some margin. In lots of 'developed' countries they wouldn't even be looking into solving it.

[RIP]

Fair point Sean, we are lucky in that respect. Hence why I don't use bottled water etc. Pity the effluent side of things isn't quite as rigourous. Then again we're pretty lucky with that too compared to many countries aren't we. I think it's the accountability that I'm a bit cynical about sometimes rather than the H2O itself. In fact a lot of the problems with our rivers are caused by operators/entities other than the water companies aren't they....

[sean_iow]

Fair point Sean, we are lucky in that respect. Hence why I don't use bottled water etc. Pity the effluent side of things isn't quite as rigourous. Then again we're pretty lucky with that too compared to many countries aren't we. I think it's the accountabilty that I'm a bit cynical about sometimes rather than the H2O itself. In fact a lot of the problems with our rivers are caused by operators other than the water companies aren't they....

The DWI (drinking water regulator) are very strict and do hand out very large fines and are on the ball, they visit the sites and leave no stone un-turned.

OFWAT are less on the ball but even they do hand out sizable fines, sometimes in the millions of pounds scale but this is never reported as the media need to keep us angry at the water companies to detract from the real issue, privatisation, and of course all the other general failings of the government.

With regard to sewage in rivers/sea, that's not an easy thing to solve. The water companies haven't decided to just close a valve an put it in the rivers. The combined sewers have a maximum capacity, during very high intensity rainfall events they have CSOs (combined sewer overflows) which discharge to the rivers. Climate change means these very high intensity rainfall events now seem to occur every week, or at least if I'm cycling to work they do. The solution is to separate out the surface water from the foul but this requires a surface water drain in every road and the cost of constructing these makes HS2 look like buying a Hornby OO from the toy shop!

The Victorians designed our sewers to just dump everything (untreated) into the rivers and sea. In the 80s we decided this was not really on and have tried to intercept it and treat it but there is a limit to the capacity. Changing rainfall events means we can no longer cope. We should have been addressing this for the last 20+ years but for the government to require this is an admsion that climate change was real and that doesn't fit with their other policy's, new coal mine here, extra oil fields there etc.

Back to cheery Friday.... tested powering the eTrex of my new power bank on the way in and it seems to work The eTrex has such a low power draw that my other power bank detects the very low current, assumed it was a problem with device and turns off. The new one has a 'trickle charge' mode which allows for very low current out.

The only issue appears to be that the backlight stays on all the time with external power even when set of go off after 15 seconds.

[Bearlegged]

...the media need to keep us angry at the water companies to detract from the real issue, privatisation, and of course all the other general failings of the government.

Believe you me, I have more than enough rage for all of them.

[faustus]

Can of worms Friday there Reg! I'd echo what Sean says about water supply, it's incredibly high quality nearly all of the time. Crypto outbreaks do happen, this one seems to have been worse than others, but amplified by the media due to the focus on the industry as a whole.

On sewage: the condition of rivers isn't solely water companies, there are also significant issues with pollution run-off from roads and agriculture, particularly levels of phosphate in rivers, which makes the water more nutrient rich than it often should be (see River Wye). Sewage overflows specifically, it's something that has been happening for a fairly long time sadly. It doesn't make it right in any respect, and reflects lack of investment in some areas but also systematic problems with sewage systems, especially combined sewers in London. This is all compounded by increases in population and housing, and the infrastructure not keeping up or never able to keep up. Some of that isn't in water companies gift to control (population changes, housing). Anyway, as with many issues, the complexity and nuance isn't captured in the general debate, and needless to say there are no quick or easy fixes to any of it (including nationalising the industry!).

Edit: can you guess who in the thread might be close/in the water industry!

[PaulB2]

Don't get me started on privatisation, the most blatant stripping of a countries assets for pennies to the pound while waving the flag of minor tax reductions to distract people. Not very cheery so I'll shut up now.

[RIP]

Slightly-Annoying Friday. Been waiting for tickets to open for Amyl and The Sniffers at 10am. Sold out by five past! How does that happen? Must be automated buyers or summat. Oh well, just have to make do with Sham 69 the same week.

[sean_iow]

Been waiting for tickets to open for Amyl and The Sniffers at 10am. Sold out by five past! How does that happen?

Too many retired old duffers sat at their computers waiting for 10am so they can order in the first few seconds?

[RIP]

Been waiting for tickets to open for Amyl and The Sniffers at 10am. Sold out by five past! How does that happen?

Too many retired old duffers sat at their computers waiting for 10am so they can order in the first few seconds?

Guilty

[Boab]

Went to see a psychiatrist on Wednesday, there has been a lot of staring into space since.I should be cheery as it's answered a couple of questions and explains a lot. Might go out of a cheeky bivvy tomorrow night.

[RIP]

Always good to see light at the end of the tunnel Bob.

Bit of good news today (apart from missing out on Amyl!!) so decided to take the rash step of the year's first cocktail. And now the sun's clouded over, sigh. Sod it, having it anyway, cheers!

[fatbikephil]

Light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train....
More grief this week but our project partners have managed to get one of three bridges in over the new rail line project I'm involved in. 750T crane required to lift in, in sections. Total span is 135m, total cost to taxpayer, £6m. And all for walking and cycling

Spent the rest of the week watching an argument brewing over who gets invited to the opening ceremony....

Anyway, no bike riding for me this weekend, but will be musical!

[Verena]

Eventful AND educational CF this week!

Hope you're alright Bob?

Not massively cheerful 24 hours here, lots of sicknessy gross foot infectiony stuff to deal with, not my own but I can assure you I think it's worse when someone else's

On the plus side, lots of pretty colours emerging on my legs from where the bruises from last weekend's slow but ouch coming off the bike are finally coming out...

And cheery that tomorrow I get to ride my bike in the morning, and going to see the play Nye with Michael Sheen in Cardiff tomorrow evening.

[slarge]

Things are cheery here. Bought tickets to see PJ Harvey in August in London Town after umming and ahhing for weeks. Plus got my sub standard together for some longer term plans.

Just need my van to pass its MOT on Monday and we're all good

[Rapideye]

Big fan of PJ Harvey here. Loving the new LP

[Boab]

Hope you're alright Bob?

Maybe...? It's been a wild six weeks*, with some ramifications I'd rather not think about at the moment. Looks like I'll need to invest in some sort of pill box, as they're fair going be be rattling around for the foreseeable.







* I'm sure I'll more open about it at some unspecified point in the future, but it's going to take a lot of processing.

[Verena]

Hope you're alright Bob?

Maybe...? It's been a wild six weeks*, with some ramifications I'd rather not think about at the moment. Looks like I'll need to invest in some sort of pill box, as they're fair going be be rattling around for the foreseeable.







* I'm sure I'll more open about it at some unspecified point in the future, but it's going to take a lot of processing.

Sure thing Bob, taking some processing time sounds good. Just remember, you're among friends here, if ever it helps to talk, in forum or on PMs.

[Verena]

Have just found out that I am about to have 3 out of 5 of my immediate family in hospital!

And have just taken my poo sample of bowel cancer screening.

Fun fun fun this getting older lark isn't it??

But I get total dibs on the telly, and am looking forward to a Chinese takeaway with my daughter tonight, followed by my May BAM

[fatbikephil]

Could be.
Off up to a mates just north of Aviemore who is having a party tomorrow. So I'm going to peddle up this evening and tomorrow morning and bag a bonus May bam. Of course the forecast for today was horrible but it's actually been dry. Guess when the rain will start...

Supposed to be sunny tomorrow though