The joy of faffing

[JohnClimber]

Is it just me?

We all like looking at maps..... we like bike riding and bike packing....

But what about the faffing of kit preparation?

Can anyone else pass away an hour or two away before an over nighter (and enjoy it) just prepping your gear before you set off or maybe even a day or two before hand?

[RIP]

Yep! Although my pre-trip faffing time always seems to take more days than the actual trip itself! And now I come to think about it, the post-trip de-faffing (is that a word? it is now) also takes longer than the trip.

R

[rufus748]

Is it just me?

We all like looking at maps..... we like bike riding and bike packing....

But what about the faffing of kit preparation?

Can anyone else pass away an hour or two away before an over nighter (and enjoy it) just prepping your gear before you set off or maybe even a day or two before hand?

Just waiting for Jase to pop up.....

[Mariner]

Ha for real faffing its the after ride faff that I find the most time consuming.
I can pack at home and be on my way in hours but it seems to take weeks to unpack, sort through and dry and clean gear.
Then there's the bike to clean, oil, repair, etc.
Download gps file and look at distance, heights, times etc.
Its almost a full time occupation.

[ton]

not one for faffing or clutter.

[Wotsits]

Just waiting for Jase to pop up.....

They don't call me La Faffa for nothing!

Love a bit of faffing me, especially in the morning..

[ianfitz]

Is it just me?

We all like looking at maps..... we like bike riding and bike packing....

But what about the faffing of kit preparation?

Can anyone else pass away an hour or two away before an over nighter (and enjoy it) just prepping your gear before you set off or maybe even a day or two before hand?

See that's not how I'd define faffing. That sounds like a leisurely evening luxuriating in preparation.

To me faffing is when you get out the car with your kit everywhere and then spend ages messing about getting bags on bikes and stuff in bags. When we should already be riding!

[rufus748]

[quote="ianfitz"][quote="JohnClimber"]
To me faffing is when you get out the car with your kit everywhere and then spend ages messing about getting bags on bikes and stuff in bags. When we should already be riding![/quote

Jase will be back in a moment....

[Wotsits]

To me faffing is when you get out the car with your kit everywhere and then spend ages messing about getting bags on bikes and stuff in bags. When we should already be riding!

This all sounds too familiar Ian!.....Then there's always time for another cup of coffee

[ianfitz]

To me faffing is when you get out the car with your kit everywhere and then spend ages messing about getting bags on bikes and stuff in bags. When we should already be riding!

This all sounds too familiar Ian!.....Then there's always time for another cup of coffee

Yep. We all do it. Some more than others. And at different times too. I think I made 5 brews before leaving the Bothy on the Welsh winter event!

I'm already making a pile of kit I'm taking out on Friday nights bivy...

I don't think of that as faffing, just part of looking forwards to heading out

[Pickers]

That sounds like a leisurely evening luxuriating in preparation

That's exactly what it is, but from the outside - to the casual observer- it does look an awful lot like faffing. We know different of course.

[benp1]

The first joy of faffing is saying faffing. What a glorious word, I use it as much as possible!

I like a bit of faffing, it's like route planning. Don't like the airing/drying of kit at the end of a trip though

[bearlymoving]

I find collecting all the bits I need after I've not been bikepacking for a while to be quite a time consuming exercise. Normally, I've left it until the night/morning before I have to catch a train, and it gets a bit stressful.

On the other hand, pulling all my damp kit out of a dry bag and draping it around the lounge to dry off is an easy win. I usually turn my house into a bomb site within half an hour of arriving home.

[voodoo_simon]

Is it just me?

We all like looking at maps..... we like bike riding and bike packing....

But what about the faffing of kit preparation?

Can anyone else pass away an hour or two away before an over nighter (and enjoy it) just prepping your gear before you set off or maybe even a day or two before hand?

See that's not how I'd define faffing. That sounds like a leisurely evening luxuriating in preparation.

To me faffing is when you get out the car with your kit everywhere and then spend ages messing about getting bags on bikes and stuff in bags. When we should already be riding!

I'm with Ian on this

[whitestone]

Not bikepacking but we've a couple of friends, husband and wife, who are known as the Faffmeisters they are that bad On a biking trip to Majorca a couple of years ago we split them up one day to try and discover who was the cause of most faffage. I think the result was a draw!

[RIP]

Interested in its origins. With all those F's it'd be a pretty good candidate for an acronym, although the sweary filter will probably preclude any further investigation down that route.

I like the idea that we're all characters in a Wodehouse story though....... and as for "flapping idly in the breeze" that absolutely sums up my bikepacking style and they spotted it 200 years ago.......

"......'Faffing about' is a phrase that is most often heard in the UK rather than in other parts of the English-speaking world. In fact, even in the UK it is something of an anachronism, more at home in a P G Wodehouse story than as 21st century street slang.

'Faff' has been used to mean 'dither; fuss; flap' since the 19th century. The Church of England clergyman, author, and folk-song collector Sabine Baring-Gould recorded it in Yorkshire Oddities, 1874:

T' clock-maker fizzled an' faff'd aboot her, but nivver did her a farthing's worth o' good.

'Faff' derives directly from 'faffle' which had been used since the 16th century, which much the same meaning but with the additional meaning of 'flap idly in the breeze'. The second meaning seems to be the source of another 1870s usage of 'faff', from The Australian Journal, 1879:

"No, it [a candle] burns quite steadily now; you are right about it faffing about before, because it blew towards my face."

Baring-Gould's citation locates the phrase amongst the rural working classes and its use in Australia at a time when English speakers in that country were predominantly ex-UK convicts, suggests that the phrase was to be found below rather than above stairs....."

[benp1]

Reg, how much time do you spend on wikipedia?

[atk]

The level of faff in the run up to our NZ trip has been ridiculous. It has involved completely rebuilding two bikes, neither of which I'm taking with me.

Mostly packed now though... I think...

[deft punk]

Reg, how much time do you spend faffing on wikipedia?

FTFY

[RIP]

"faffing on wikipedia"; "FTFY" -

If I'm not on here, or doing the washing up, I'm on Wiki "Knowledge" is a wonderful thing. Trouble is, the more "knowledgeable" you become (or think you've become), the more ignorant you realise you are (one from JFK I believe?).... they're entirely proportional.....

R

[voodoo_simon]

"faffing on wikipedia"; "FTFY" -

If I'm not on here, or doing the washing up, I'm on Wiki "Knowledge" is a wonderful thing. Trouble is, the more "knowledgeable" you become (or think you've become), the more ignorant you realise you are (one from JFK I believe?).... they're entirely proportional.....

R

True, I also think people with a little bit of knowledge are 'dangerous'*

*thats not a pop at you Reg

[PeterC]

Socrates:. "The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing".

Confucius:. "True wisdom is in knowing what you don't know".

And many other variations thereof down through philosophical and theological traditions for millennia!

I'm off out now to faff with the new tarp

[RIP]

Don "Crackpot" Rumsfeld: "There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know".

I think that tops them all.

"On here, washing up, or on Wiki" - that may or may not be true BTW . Right, off now to see some Year 5's with a bit of Bikeability....

[Bearbonesnorm]

"Ya know f*ck all" - my dad on many occasion. Wise words indeed.

[adjustablewench]

by Wotsits » Mon Feb 06, 2017 11:31 pm
rufus748 wrote:
Just waiting for Jase to pop up.....


They don't call me La Faffa for nothing!

Love a bit of faffing me, especially in the morning..

I thought we called you La Grande Faffa in italy . . . . I guess if you went to Morocco you could be Mustafa Faffa