MooN

Despite other sh!t going on I abandoned the children to their own devices for a couple of hours this afternoon and headed out to do something useful... and clear the mind at the same time. I used "Kurviger" to plan a route as I had 3 fixed waypoints I needed to visit to verify the availability of water and electric hook ups for our boats in the event of us actually being able to run this season. We have a guide on each boat for the clients which I update at the beginnin of each season and I have found that the most reliable way of getting valid information is to go and look ofr myself... so waypoints were Surgy, Villiers sur Yonne and Monceau le compte. add start and finish and kurviger sorts out a route based on various other criteria ( fastest, shortest, main roads, curvey or downright winding) I added a couple of other waypoints to take in one or two portions I wanted to ride, export to " Scenic" on the "mefone" and jobs done. screen capture for those who like, those who don't like can do the other thing... First stop Surgy, Neither water or power available here which came as no surprise but a nice picnic area and ahade to hide in Temps in the upper 20's so shade is always welcome when disguised in bike gear Back over the river, not in the shade... and on through Clamecy to Villiers sur Yonne to see if there's still a standpipe at the little port there Villiers Sur Yonne it looked like a snowstorm had just gone through, look at all the white fluffon the ground The stand pipe is still there and even has a pair of fonctionning taps... no water in it though but I found the stop cock under a steel plate so I know it can be nade to work as and when needed. I also say this, as important a peice of leisure equipement as any if ever Boboneleg comes this way again... a pleasant spot to sit and contemplate I moved on from here heading towards Bazoches, across country on the minor roads, I wanted a closer look at this hilltop building which i'd never seen before the road up was narrow and steep but gave some good views of the surrounding countryside From afar I thought it might just be a grain silo or something but a bit odd perched up there on the hill. Turns out it's a very nicely maintained chapel Time was getting on and I need to get home, the roads from here were all well known to me and fairly rapid, here to Bazoches was again smaller back roads but then it was then quick and straightforward. got home around 6, just in time for aperitifs... ? cheers!

please tell me you don't think I actually bother to read what you write Pete...

you too have ;isconstrued my original point, but I can't see who to explain myself better. more sucinctly perhaps would be : some people prefer to avoid any interaction, for fear of giving offence or being accused of giving offence. Am i the only one who percieves this?

Welcome in.

Ok. Ill try to explain myself better. my original point was that To avoid the risk of giving a percieved offence we say nothing. A sad state of affairs that suits mo ones purpose. and if you think that sexual stereotyping is dead in the workplace im Europe you are very wrong my friend. I am currently helping 3 teenage daughters with their career choices.... believe you me sexism is alive and well in the career world. I also had to get rid of my best mechanic last year, fired for sexual harrassement in the workplace. Hes 10 yrs younger than me so its not just the “old guard” either.

erm... nope... but that's exactly my point. Tht is what everybody automatically assumes.

Girls, holding their own and making their way in a male dominated milieu on equal terms on is admirable, be it on bikes or whatever else. It has nothing to do with their sex, or looks or whatever but because they are bucking the trend and breaking down barriers that have been imposed by society for decades. for exactly the same reason I admire a blind person travelling alone, a physically disabled person carrying on as normal and doing stuff society doesn't expect.

You missed the point, I have no problem talking to the girls, the problem is the potential consequences of that being misinterpreted. like I said you can't even reply to a girl riders post in some places without people calling you out as a lecher or a perv cos she's half your age and better looking than you are. This may be done originally as a jibe but are the sort of accusations that, even jokingly intended, can have serious consequences.

A reflexion generated by posts in the " your off road photos" section where, in replying to a post by one of the girls I found my self in a potential minefield. With today's need for "political correctness" and the current trend for the public lynching of anybody accused of sexism or mysoginy ( I use the word accused advisedly as the lynching tends to take place based on accusation alone and the lives of the accused are often destroyed even if subsequently proved innocent) I found my self rewriting again and again what I wanted to say, desperately searching for any way in which my post could be misconstrued and provide offence, albeit perfectly unintentionally. I probably need, to avoid a lynching, to say here that I in no way shape or form, condone or accept any form of sexual harassement. I just find it a shame that being obliged to avoid any and all possibility of such accusation, it is easier to simply avoid any and all interaction. example: last week out by bike with friends we stopped for lunch and over the hour we spent at the lake a LOT of other groups turned up and picknicked, much as we were doing. Most of them younger than us and a group that came and sat near us had, surprisingly to me, a large proportion of girls obviously not passengers. There was an exchange of banter between us and sme of the lads as they walked past ( " oh god not more nasty hairy bikers!"... "no tables left I'm afraid but I can rent you this one..." "there's been a release of prisoners at the kindergarten"... are some that I recall but I noticed that the girls were clearly not included in this exchange. and nobody, but nobody mentioned the fucking Elephant in the room ( ie that in a group of maybe 155 riders, more than half were girls which is just massively inhabituel here.) I think that actually during at least 15 minutes there was not one single remark adressed to any of the girls present by our group. I also noticed that when we stopped for coffee a little later, there was much mention of that perticular group ( not in any sort of negative way at all), about the number of girls riding, their age ( much younger than us) and how much it was positive for biking in general and for girls on the whole. There was nothing mysogenistic about any of it so why had no one said anything to the girls? or to the group as a whole? In the same way, on websites or bike related pages, I have noticed that blokes liking comments from girl riders, or replying to girl riders will rapidly get some comment about how theyreply faster to grls than blokes, or more to girls than blokes or whatever. This is obviously counter productive as for fear of being misconstrued, I actively avoid, on certain sites, responding to posts from female riders. This is neither encouraging for the girls nor constructive for anybody else. re reading this, can I say "girls" as a collective noun without appearing derogatory? Is this just me being too cerebral and overthinking, and nobody else has a problem with this? If this thread gets too stupid I wll ask admin to pull it. ( been there, done that elsewhere...) but I'm interested what you SOG's think and what the girls think ( but i can't ask them directly cos I'd be suspected of tring to chat them up or something...)

ehem... I have 3 teenage daughters, looking for someone to persuade them...N0 1 has kinda lost interest and is off to uni this year, N0's 2a and 2b being twins, haven't done so much pillion as N01 did cos once they were to big to fit in the panniers, they just fought about who's turn it was so I kinda gave up... I am slowly weaning Madame back onto the passenger seat now that the girls are big enough to not kill each other if we leave them alone for an afternoon. I was impressed to see the number of girls riding the other day when we went out though, it looks like the next generation will have more female riders.

yeah, but that was like, 100 years ago Bruce! they do it all with satellites and computor modelling now... ?

Bizarrely I lost a little early on in confinement but I'm still 10 kiloa more than I ought to be

I think you are probably very right my friend, the welfare state is a wonderful thing but it has to be paid for, this is also why the different govt are pushing schools to open and people back to work too early for safety, because the cost of staying locked down now outweighs the cost of dealing with a potential "nd wave of Covid.

currently yes. If we don't go back till end september I image that it will drop to around 70% of Brut ( +/- 85% of net) I imagine. I hope it won't drop below that cos with N01 starting Uni in Dijon this year we're going to struggle if it does.

Dunno yet Pete, according to bossman 1st client not yet cancelled is 10th July. we'll go back to work end June : IF the canal opens IF the clients still want to come IF the uk lifts the 14day quarantine by then ( our clients aren't going to come if they have to do 14 days quarantine each way!) IF the french authorities lift the 100km travel limit IF the French govt make it more economical to return to work than not That's a lot of IF's and any one of them not happening will preclude our opening. In which case we will start back in october... so I'm waiting...

Oi! I resemble that remark...?

don't do insane Pete, mildly idiotic or vaguely stupid is about as rad as I get these days...

Out again today, bloody lovely weather again and being as I can't go to work and the kids pretty much look after themselves now I dissappeared off out of it just after lunch. Did about 130 odd km around the Foret D'Othe which is an area north and east of us here. No map today cos of the whingers... but I dug the camera out for you. After fifteen minutes or so I had to stop in the shade and open the vents on my Jacket, efficacious but fastidious is how I would describe them... ( cos "pain in the arse to do right" would be crude...) Most of this afternoon was spent in simlar country, the area being mostly wooded and me searching out the more sketchy back roads. I did fond some open country along the northern edge of the Forest came across this pretty place at the north eastern limit of my loop I did manage to find some short sections of trail across some of the more open farmland before plunging back into the forest and heading for home. I canged settings on the camera between these two pics and the colour looks a bit off ( too red?) in the 2nd one. I found some more lovely single lane roads back through the forest towards Joigny and home and had to stop for a photo shoot with tigrou ( tigger in French) pretty machine!

They’ve been replaced here by the portugese in the building trade. Vendettas always get worse the further south you go. Same with corruption and wife beating if we’re talking stereotypes...?

I don’t

So who’s generating more traffic...?

So, I'm working up a route. anybody know if bikes are subject to congestion charge in central London? okay I just looked it up 12£50! I think they can stick that up there where the sun don't shine, here's half a dozen tourists that will not be visiting central london. I'd be interested to know how they'd trace and charge a foreign plate though, especially post brexit...

None of us speak the language it's too hot it's full of bloody foreigners I get sunburnt but apart from that... I've never been interested in the south, never wanted to sail the med either, gimme the baltic I'd go, i'd love to visit furter east and north into europe but spain or italy... not my thing mate.

200ish k run out around the back lanes of the "Puisaye" region of Burgundy this afternoon, no pics cos I couldn't be arsed...

ok, I'll try and answer seriously: I don't for one instant believe that visas will be needed for schengen residents to enter the uk ( mostly cos the shengen area would reciprocate in kind, but also because it wasn't that way previous to the borders opening in '92. The Uk never signed or ratified the schengen agreement of 1985 but still didn't need visas there is no reason for that to change) It will be neccessary however to have a valid passport whereas previously a national identity card was sufficient, this is already in place. The insurance question will deend on brexit negotiations and agreements, there is no real need for this to change, it's just that the uk will have to negotiate with each individual country rather than being able to use a blanket "EU" agreement. but obviously one of the many details that we will need to ;ook into before comitting. Free mobile roaming... umm... I am old enough, so you certainly bloody welll are! to remember a time before mobile phones existed and I certainly don't need one, if the cost is prohibitive then we'll manage without. as for why they want to do a uk trip, the reasons are various; There is a certain fascination within the french psyche with Britain, and all things British. we are reputed to be a little odd, quirky, individualist, not to say bizarre and god forbid, gentlemanly! these are obviously stereotypes but the idea is there. This particular group find themselves with the possibility of exploring a foreign land in the company of a native, who will help them, or so they believe, avoid any "faux pas" or communication problems, who is used to riding on the wrong side of the road and all the other anomalies that make us "so British". the French are, on the whole not a very adventurous people, and don't need to be as they have beaches and mountains galore in their own country and if they feel the urge to go abroard then french polynesia or Mayotte enable them to get exoctic whilst remaing at home within their own administrative framework. Posibly more importantly thir language is not universal, where ours is. The pyrenees belong to them, as do the alps, the jura, the massif centrale etc etc and have already been done forwards, backwards and inside out. They have no interest whatsoever in going into Germany ( forgiven yes, but not forgotten...) other than to have a go on the autobahn. I have singularly failed to spark any interest in a run to the nurburgring for example. dunno if that makes sense