The Good News Thread

[Greenbank]

£37 for 1st class return tickets to Nottingham for my OU residential course. Non-peak travel rocks...

[pixieannie]

Longest ride for a year, second time on my road bike in that time.  Sounds silly but it was a huge achievement for me to just get out and ride the bike.  My legs ache in a nice way.

[CAMRAMan]

My HP Spirit has finally arrived from Hungary. I'm off on a ride later. The Dawes MTB turned up &, inexpilcably, the trailer bike I didn't ask them to deliver!

Summer Solstice tomorrow too!

[CrinklyLion]

Today the elder CrinklyCub had his first attempt at riding a road bike - first encounter with  drop bars and sti shifters, 5 minutes round the grass on a very shiny red Luath 24 at the Islabikes stand at York Show.  And he only had one slightly scary 'sh!t, where's the  brake lever I was going to use' moment.  And I caught him by the bars as he gently rolled almost into me with a look of mild panic...


He liked  And somehow looked unbearably cute.  Not getting one until he's grown out of the current flat-barred one and can get the 26" wheeled one though!  

[Frenchie]

£37 for 1st class return tickets to Nottingham for my OU residential course. Non-peak travel rocks...

When is it? Fancy a bike ride, if possible?

Walk along Coates Bldg corridors quietly in between classes pls.! 

PS The train is still expensive and a mystery to me in this country.  Just used the ICE and Thalys in Germany at the last minute and paid €22; not first class but top trains, good comfort and reliably on time as well.

[peliroja]

I have plans to buy a new bike.  Need to get better soon, though.

[Gus]

I have just got my work schedule for July, it has been corrected so I can see the
end of all the TdF Mountain stages, and I didn't ask for it.  this year 

[TimO]

PS The train is still expensive and a mystery to me in this country. ...

...and to the rest of us, who've lived here all our lives.

[Chris S]

PS The train is still expensive and a mystery to me in this country. ...

...and to the rest of us, who've lived here all our lives.

No mystery really. Railway operating costs in this country are roughly double those on the continent; possibly thanks to years of very strong union representation; drivers can get £40k on some networks, for 35 hour weeks. Nice. Network operating costs are even worse. But - this is a Good News thread - time for a subject change.

I have beer  .

[Adrian]

PS The train is still expensive and a mystery to me in this country. ...

...and to the rest of us, who've lived here all our lives.

No mystery really. Railway operating costs in this country are roughly double those on the continent; possibly thanks to years of very strong union representation; drivers can get £40k on some networks, for 35 hour weeks. Nice. Network operating costs are even worse. But - this is a Good News thread - time for a subject change.

I have beer  .

The mystery is that the fares are either ludicrously cheap or ludicrously expensive but never a reasonable price.

[CrinklyLion]

CrinklyCub's total odo reading on the bike computer tipped over the 300 mile mark this weekend.  Not bad, to say that I only fitted it in February, he did his first over 15 mile ride at the end of March and he's missed out on doing a proper ride the last 2 weekends in a row because I've been away having silly bike adventures without him...

[Greenbank]

Latest OU assignment done.
Scanned and md5sum of PDF emailed to tutors as 'proof' it has been done.
Just about to stick it in the post office if I can remember where the nearest postbox is...

[David Martin]

Dear Sir. Your manuscript has now been accepted for publication..

After 18 months grief.

Off to raid the fridge for the celebratory bottle of champagneJacobs Creek champagnealike

[clarion]

Splendid.  So Mills & Boon finally accepted, eh?

[Riggers]

Jason slowed and came to a stop on his bike, straddling the cross-bar.

Susan gasped. Was that bulge in Jason's shorts all that she imagined it to be!?

[David Martin]

Splendid.  So Mills & Boon finally accepted, eh?

if only..

No. it was a methodology paper for the postprocessing and analysis pf phosphoproteomic mass spectrometry data.

I am tempted to call the next one 'Belshazzars algorithm'.

..d

[CAMRAMan]

My HP Spirit has finally arrived from Hungary. I'm off on a ride later. The Dawes MTB turned up &, inexpilcably, the trailer bike I didn't ask them to deliver!

Summer Solstice tomorrow too!

I now remember why it was such a bad idea to replace the twist-grip shifters on the Spirit for thumb shifters. Almost every pedal cycle, I bang my knees on them. Hmmm, the old shifters are in Hungary too...

[mike]

Little brother just got engaged to an absolutely lovely American.  There is one! 

[Wowbagger]

Little brother just got engaged to an absolutely lovely American.  There is one! 

Andrij?

[mike]

That's two! 

The other ones from Kansas

[David Martin]

That's two! 

The other ones from Kansas

does she wear red shoes and have a small dog? And strange ideas when it comes to moving house?

[Greenbank]

£37 for 1st class return tickets to Nottingham for my OU residential course. Non-peak travel rocks...

When is it? Fancy a bike ride, if possible?

24th to 30th July. It's 9am to 9pm every day. What spare time I have will be spent working on the assignments so I very much doubt it, plus I'm taking books and notes and no bike.

Walk along Coates Bldg corridors quietly in between classes pls.! 

It's outside term time (hence the use of the halls of residence) but I guess you lot are there all year round. No idea where the actual lectures will be...

PS The train is still expensive and a mystery to me in this country.  Just used the ICE and Thalys in Germany at the last minute and paid €22; not first class but top trains, good comfort and reliably on time as well.

You just have to the tricks to booking cheap tickets in the UK, that and being flexible with your time and being able to book ahead. In the end I was able to get an earlier train so I've only paid £16 each way for 1st class tickets.

[pixieannie]

My new bike is at the LBS

[clarion]

Cool.  My new bike is in my imagination

[CAMRAMan]

I am very sorely tempted by a Bakfiets Long Cargobike I've seen...