Nute

Bloody hell, what a nightmare for you, and your family. Reading what you have been through really puts one’s own issues into perspective. Good on you for having the guts and faith for fighting back and living your life. Thanks for sharing and sorry to be nosey, I assumed you’d been in a horrendous car smash or something.

Thanks @YamaHead, I’d never seen them before. The bloody “ I’ve gone wrong and need someone to come and push buttons “ alarm seems to go off every 1.5 hrs requiring the nurse to come and mutter “sodding machine” under her breath whilst resetting it. Im hoping to be out today or tomorrow at some point assuming I can stand up without throwing up. This is my first ever overnight hospital admission and first general anaesthetic in 60 years, and I’d prefer it to be my last but … getting old is a bitch. Do you mind me asking how you lost your toes - tell me to mind my own bloody business if you prefer not to - that must have been an awful experience for you.

They are things which inflate suddenly every few secs to keep the blood pumping through my feet. As they were messing about with the nerve which runs my right leg they are concerned about blood clots - won’t be getting much sleep tonight with that and the occasional puking which apparently is normal after a general anaesthetic and the assortment of morphine, ketamine and other stuff I’ve had. Bloody pain when I first woke up was excruciating. Got to say that aside from the frustration at having the op canceled previously due to lack of beds the care and treatment has been 5*. Laying in the recovery suite the guy in the bed next to me was swearing at the nurses. I just can’t understand how people can be abusive to the staff. He did seem not quite right mentally. Now I just need to work out how quickly I can get back on a bike ( and skis)…

In hospital, finally had the bits of bone removed from my vertebrae. Not sure how long in going to be in for, I’m hoping they let me out tomorrow. Absolutely hate hospitals ….

Just got back to the UK, we drove 1000km across France, a bit of Germany and then Switzerland and back again, lovely smooth roads with no pot holes and people who understand the concept of lane discipline, only two tiny areas on roadworks. Back out of the tunnel at Folkestone, bumpy crappy potholed roads, utter inability of drivers to keep left unless overtaking, we got a total of 1 mile before the first cones started. Why people risk their lives to get here from Europe is beyond me. I’m going to check online to see if I can claim political asylum somewhere in Europe.

Looks absolutely beautiful there, you are a lucky man to be able to live somewhere like that…. Bet the deer hunting is good too Most skiing in the Alps tops out at that kind of height, tho some places do go up to 3600 or so.

The village is at about 1000m, the top of the ski area is a glacier at about 3000m. It’s sunny today and just above freezing.

…and here. Although to be fair I’m up a mountain in Switzerland.

I end up changing insurer every year as the one you are with always goes up. It’s ridiculous, they seem to have no interest at all in retaining the customers they already have.

Ride it till the 13th March then just park it in the centre of Birmingham for the afternoon and claim for its value once it’s nicked 15 mins after you park it.

Not sure if it’s because I live out in the sticks but getting all the bits of splatted bugs out of the vents is a pain

At least you have proper seasons, we just get 11 months of grey with the drizzle being slightly colder Oct to April.

Too close to my mother in law!! ...oh, and Trump...

Been doing some tree work with the help of my youngest lad. The HSE would have had a fit but no one injured or dead and nothing broken. I'll call that a win but need to go clear up tomorrow. Im getting to old for this physical crap, everything aches.

It’s long been an ambition of mine to go to the speed weekend at Arsunda lake in Sweden. There is another one at Orsa, or there used to be. It’s a frozen lake and you can race what you want including this mental snowmobile built around an Argus type pulse jet. There used to be a channel on YT for the team that built this and I think they eventually got to 300kph on the thing but I can’t find it now. In early development ( I.e. beers around a bbq running the thing up) they had a noise complaint from 7km away. I have a small collection of these ( much smaller) pulse jets, they are unbelievably noisy. I can’t run mine here, the whole village would complain. Edit to add, should have read the thread more carefully, didn’t see @Pedro had posted the same link

Out of interest how big are the panels?

Guildford isn’t far from me but I never knew they existed …

Good luck with it. Don’t forget to add “world famous bike, as seen on bike of the month” to your ad …

@YamaHead that looks wonderful, you are lucky to have that on your doorstep ( well almost). We don’t have that opportunity, except maybe if you live in Scotland but even there the snow is hit and miss. We can drive to the Alps but it’s a day of traveling and time wise you might as well fly. The snow is always good here, it’s like skiing on talcum powder and they have it 6-7 months of the year, although it’s often below -20 and sometime -30 (C) so you need good clothing. There are wooden huts dotted about the place which look like a Teepee with a hole right at the top. They have an open fire in the middle, the smoke goes out the top and there is always firewood stacked around the edge. You can go in and warm up or cook something over the fire. Ive been skiing on and off for 50 years, it’s the only sport I’m good at and I can go as fast as I like here, although I’m getting older and slowing down a bit. I’m crap on wet snow and I don’t like it. Always feel I’m going to twist my knee or otherwise damage something.

@YamaHead yeah is that this place is not busy, as you can see from the photos. There are beginners on some slopes but if you avoid those you can really shift along perfectly safely. It gets dark around 4 and all the locals get off work or out of school around then and they rocket along. It’s also so cold the snow is perfect. I’ve never tried the US but I will one day. You guys a spoilt for choice there, it must be wonderful to be able to drive to winter sports places.

He said he’d end the Ukraine war in the first 24 hrs of his term…. He also said he’d get rid of the US national debt in two terms, I’m not holding my breath on that one. And yes Starmer is a total wanker too, but then so are the other lot, we can’t win. I wish we had the ability to write in a candidate like the US do.

Weather today was absolutely beautiful. I could just stand there for hours looking at the views, much to the annoyance of my kids. Reindeer burger for lunch and some local beer to round the day off. Poxy GoPro didn’t like the cold and just picked up its ball and went home, shutting off after 30 secs even after being stored on my pocket with a hand warmer. Heated bike gloves work pretty well though, just annoying I didn’t think to bring a second set of batteries as they crap out after about 4 hrs on max. Temp was between 0 and -12 and hands nice and warm most of the time, although after taking gloves off to try to get the bloody GoPro to work they took a while to unfreeze once regloved.

I dislike Starmer intensely but he’s Einstein compared to Trump. I’d put money on my dog having a higher IQ than both of them combined. It seems a common theme that the names on the ballot paper are shit choices whichever one you pick. The fact that you want to be elected to a position of power should bar you from ever holding office.

I ain’t going to be at the front of the queue to get in with him running the show. On the basis that he managed to get himself elected it could well be Kaley Cuoco or Taylor Swift next …

My wife is from the US so I’d likely get a green card with out to much trouble, and the property looks great , but I’d be a bit to close to my mother in law. I prefer the Atlantic between us.